Dungbombs and S-P-E-W
by GoldenSilence
Summary: Chapter 7 is up! It's the grand finale!(well, sort of.;))George and Hermione at last get together...and Lavender and Parvarti finally have their meddling minds settled. What on earth am I talking about?Read to find out!
1. Default Chapter

@Dungbombs and S-P-E-W@  
(1/7)-Me With her?Forget it!  
by:GoldenSilence  
email=flipgal14@yahoo.com  
category:romance/humor  
keywords:George, Weasley Twins, Hermione, George/Hermione, Ron/Lavender  
spoilers:PS/SS, CoS  
rating:PG  
summary:Sometimes the most unlikely people are really the most likely to get together. George and Hermione find humor and romance..eventually. First they must deal the gossips that are Lavender and Parvarti, Jordan Lee being his usual self, strange letters from mystery admirers, and Ron's crush.  
disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
A/N=I wrote this oh, about a month ago and posted it first at..*the site that must not be named*..*cough*fanfiction.net*cough*. I was sick of the overabundance of Ron/Hermione fics. Not that I mind them-but that was basically all anybody seemed to be writing!So I wrote this odd pairing. And now I must say I'm hooked on the two of them being together.:)And yes, the poem in this sucks, I admit it!  
  
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"Check Mate!" George shouted truimphantly. "Looks like someone owes me two bags of chocolate frogs, eh, brother of mine?"  
  
Hah. That would show Ron to try and challenge him. The chess master took no prisoners..err..so to speak.  
  
George's cry fell on deaf ears. Ron was now comfortably dozing in one of the big cushioned chairs scattered around the Gryffindor's common room.  
  
  
  
"And looks like someone fell asleep. Aww..lil' Ronniekins all tired out. Ain't it cute?"  
  
Fred closed up the book he had been reading("100 Ways To Get On The Nerves Of Everyone; Muggles, Wizards, and Warlocks Alike!") and grinned at his twin brother.   
  
George grinned back. "Yeah. Sad as it is, looks like I'm going to just have to ruin the pretty little tableau of Ron here drooling all over the furniture."  
  
"Speaking of tableaus. Ron is going to make one bugger of an intresting one in the morning."  
  
"You mean other than the fact that he'll be lying in a puddle of drool?"  
  
Fred nodded. "Yup. Even Better. Look at what Ron is supporting his head with.."  
  
George was puzzled. "His hand?"  
  
Fred groaned. "Well, obviously- look at what he has in his hand."  
  
George caught on at last. In Ron's hand was one of the chess peices. The hand that was also supporting his head. The part the ivory peice was pushed up against was already turning an intresting reddish/pink.   
  
"Oh that. That's nothing. Ron's face turns that color to begin with when he blushes, so no one will notice."  
  
He yawned. Just looking at Ron was getting him a bit sleepy himself. It was three in the morning after all.   
  
"You ready to call it a night?" asked Fred.  
  
"Yeah." George got up off the stool he'd been sitting on and stretched. He left the chess peices in place; just in case Ron wouldn't believe him and his boasts come morning.   
The last thing he did before he went out the door was snatch the chocolate frogs from underneath Ron's other arm.  
  
Fred looked back at Ron. "You know, can't say I blame him. Who wouldn't fall asleep playing chess?It's as boring as studying for McGonagall's class."  
  
"Hmpph" broke in a dissaproving voice.   
  
"Ohoh..speaking of McGonagall..looks like the mini form of her is here now" said George in a mock whisper. Hey, if Ron wasn't awake to be teased, the next best thing was Hermione.  
  
Hermione had heard every word he said and she really wasn't in the mood for it. She privately wondered how far Fred and George's bodies would fly backwards if she threw all of her textbooks at them. Studying all night will do that to a person.  
  
"Studying may be boring.. but it will pay off one day," Hermione said, unknowingly giving her best impression of McGonagall's most unnerving glare.  
  
How could Hermione say that with a straight face?No doubt something she found in a book somewhere. "Right. Study so you can end up like Percy, checking cauldron bottoms." George and Fred snickered.   
  
Hermione frowned some more. "I suppose that explains why you haven't studied one bit for the quarter year exams then."   
  
Her whole form was slumped around a load of books, showing that she at least had obviously been working diligently to make sure she got a good grade. Hermione grinned as an image of Fred and George getting down on their knees and begging for Mcgonagall's mercy on the test came into her mind.   
  
George; who was personally planning on using the quarterly exams(or at least Professor Flick's part of them) as some quality napping time shrugged and Fred just smiled.  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I have it all taken care of" he said in a vague sort of tone.  
  
It was no use-Hermione knew right what he was about.   
  
"I saw you talking to Jordan earlier about getting in to Mcgonagall's office. You're going to cheat, aren't you?I knew it, I just knew it!" Her voice rose to high pitched, banshee like shriek.   
  
George felt a flicker of guilt. He and Fred may have gotten away with tons of crazy things at Hogwarts(sneaking off campus, dungbombs in toilets, dungbombs in potion's, dungbombs anywhere they could put them) but if there was one thing they didn't do, it was cheat. He also felt surprised. Fred hadn't exactly told him about this little "arrangement"..but then Hermione could(and probably was) jumping to conclusions.  
  
Sure enough, Fred hissed at Hermione. "Oh, for god's sake, keep it down, will you?We're doing no such thing. You need to listen a little harder next time you eavesdrop."  
  
"I heard what I heard. What are you planning?"  
  
Hermione felt chastened, but she still had to ask. It was a serious thing if Fred, George, and Jordan-any of them-were cheating. Besides, it was her private opinion that they didn't need to; the had gotten an okay number of O.W.L'S and weren't exactly stupid..most of the time. Unlike now.  
  
"None of your business" Fred said shortly.   
  
Hermione's face turned red. Let them cheat and get caught. See what she cared. Forget it. She was wrong. The two of them didn't have enough brains to fill a spoon.   
  
She flounced down into one of the chairs by the still slumbering Ron and cracked open a heavy textbook. "Fine."   
  
George was getting tired of the little arguement. Bugger, he was just plain tired to begin with. "Have fun falling asleep in your books..ermm..I mean studying." He winked at her as he pretty much pushed Fred out the door.  
  
Hermione watched it slam behind him and winced. No wonder Ron could be so annoying. It must have been a trait passed down from Percy to the twins and on and on down the line .   
Though, Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that. She had work to do. One day was left to study for the test!The fact that Hermione had been studying for a week didn't matter.   
  
In her third year at Hogwarts everyone had to confront the bogart during Defense Against the Dark Arts. While other kids had seen mummies, goblins, severed hands-the bogart had showed her what she feared..making her fear it more than ever. If there was anything she was afraid of, it was not being prepared for an exam or test. Hermione scribbled notes from her book, trying to stop the words from blurring together as her eyelids sagged.   
  
"1823-The equal rights for centaurs act  
This act, passed by Aerinus Magby states  
that centaurs are half human and therefor   
deserve the same rights as any common wizard.   
Unfortunately...."  
  
Hermione's handwriting dribbled off the paper as her head dropped to her chest and she began to snore.  
  
@@@@@@@@@@@@  
  
Fred and George were busy climbing the set of spiraling stairs to their dormitories. They boy's dormitories used to have been right next to the girls..but last year, some guy(George couldn't remember his name, only that he was pissed off he hadn't thought of the idea first) had snuck into the girl's dormitories after hours. When Mcgonagall found out about the incident, she had decided to move the boy's dormitories even farther away, figuring that no guy in his right mind would walk up and down a mile long spiraling staircase just to see the girls in their nighties.  
  
Come to that, no guy in his right mind would walk up and down a mile long spiraling staircase, period, thought George as he huffed his way up the aforsaid staircase, slightly out of breath.  
  
A few minutes later, George and Fred were lying in their respective beds when both spoke at the same time.  
  
"Do you?"  
  
"Are you really?"  
  
"You first. Out with it" whispered Fred.  
  
George decided that the question really wasn't that important and besides, there was no way his brother would do something like that.   
  
"Nevermind. What did you want to ask?"  
  
"Well,what I was going to ask was..do you think Hermione and Ron would make a good couple?"  
  
George was startled. "WHAT??You sound like Parvarti! Why the sudden interest in gossip?"  
  
"No reason." Fred said calmly. "Just wondering. They're always argueing..seems like a match made in heaven, don't you think?"  
  
"More like a match made in the land of boiling vats and devils." For some reason, the idea bothered George more than it should. "Ron can date Lavender for all I care."  
  
"Someone likes Hermione," Fred said in a sing song voice.   
  
In response, George grumbled and turned over. He wasn't even going to dignify his brother with a reply on that one. Him liking Hermione!Acck.  
  
"You did say she was pretty last year at the dance" Fred pushed on, tenaciously clinging to this new subject. He really was starting to turn into Parvarti, thought George. All he needed was a brown wig and you wouldn't be able to tell them apart.  
  
"Oh come on" George mumbled. "If I could get a penny every time you whistled in some girl's direction, I would have a fortune."  
  
"Yeah, but that's me. You never have said any girl was pretty besides Hermione..except for.." Fred trailed off.  
  
"Okay,okay."  
  
This was not exactly the subject he wanted to be talking about. George rolled over and put his pillow over his head.   
  
Meanwhile Parvarti and Lavender were in the girl's dormitories, lying facing the ends of their beds. (The beds were right across from each other so they didn't have to whisper to each other from opposite ends of the room.)  
  
They had been having their usual "girlchat" and were on their favorite topic. Couples.  
  
"Mcgonagall..and..Peeves!"  
  
"Ewww." Parvarti made a gagging noise.  
  
"How about Peeves and Norris?I swear, they deserve each other."  
  
"No kidding!" Lavender said. "I still can't make up my mind which I hate worse."  
  
How about George and..."  
  
Parvarti paused. She had run out of people to couple up. She racked her mind for people that she and Lavender hadn't put their imaginary matchmaking touch to. Of course, how could she have forgotten..  
  
"Hermione!" said Parvarti confidently.  
  
Lavender looked at her with an incredulous expression.   
  
"Get out of here!You're just saying that because they're the only two people left that we haven't matched up."  
  
Lavender had hit the truth of the matter, but Parvarti wasn't willing to admit it.   
  
"I think they'd be cute together!"  
  
"Pleeasee."  
  
"Oh, you're just jealous because you like George yourself." Parvarti threw a pillow at Lavender.  
  
"That's not true!I only like.."  
  
"You LIKE someone?who,who, who?"   
  
"Why did I have to open my big mouth?" moaned Lavender, laughing and hiding behind her pillow. Parvarti continued to pester her.   
  
"Who,who,who,who?"  
  
Lavender gave in. "Weell, if you have to know-Ron."  
  
Parvarti squealed and Lavendar quickly feigned sleep. After awhile, thinking her friend actually had dozed off, Parvarti fell asleep herself.  
  
  
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The old grandfather clock chimed, signaling a new hour and resounding in Hermione's subconsiouse. The first thing that greeted her blurry vision was the black, uneven scrawls of her handwriting jumping out at her from the page. Her face felt like it had been smashed with a giant hammer.  
  
Groaning, Hermione took her head off of her notebook, stood up, and looked at her surroundings. Seven o'clock in the morning already? Hermione panicked. She had only thirty minutes left 'till breakfast. She picked up the rest of her textbooks from their various places, feeling guilty.   
  
She hadn't(in her opinion, anyway) finished her studying and the test was a mere twenty four hours away. Actually waiting to finish her studying until the night BEFORE the test instead of months before per usual? That didn't exactly fit with her principles of work, work, and of course, work even harder.  
  
Hermione tried to tiptoe quietly across the common room, acutely remembering the fact that ten points were taken from the house if a student was found sleeping in the common room. However, tiptoeing when carrying at least your own weight in books is pretty much an impossible feat unless you're either athletically gifted or used to that kind of thing.  
  
Luckily, Hermione was both-or she was until she tripped over a lone chess peice on the floor and collapsed into one of the armchairs scattered liberally throughout the room. Hermione tried to push her arms into the plush chair to get back up and realized it wasn't the upholstery she was feeling, but Ron's shirt.   
  
"AHHHHHH!"  
  
"EEEEEkKK!"  
  
A tousled Ron leapt out of the chair like a spring, looking around wildly as if expecting a monster. Hermione sighed, she had half expected Ron to be Norris, lying in wait so he could get report her to Filch.  
  
"Good morning, Ron."  
  
Ron's facial expression changed from looking frightened out of his wits to just looking emberassed.  
  
"Whoa, sorry Herm..for a minute I thought you were a.."  
  
"You were dreaming of spiders again, weren't you?" Hermione gave Ron the "I am much wiser and smarter than you" expression that he hated . "Really Ron, you should learn to confront your fears one of these days."  
  
Of course, Ron had been dreaming of a ten foot gigantian tarantula, but there was no way he was going to admit that to Hermione. He did have a reputation to uphold, you know.  
  
"Ermm..no, it wasn't that,I swear..umm..nevermind."  
  
  
Hermione shrugged and answered with the confidence of someone who knew her assumptions had been correct.  
  
"Alright. Well I'm going up to the girl's dorm. See you at breakfast."  
  
She leaned over to pick up the load of dropped books and was walking past Ron when she happened to get a good glance at him. Ron must have done likewise, because before she could tell him anything, he beat her to it.  
  
"Hermione?What happened to you?"  
  
Hermione was offended. "Hey, not everyone wakes up looking like they just got out of a beauty parlor."  
  
Ron gave Hermione an odd expression. "No, besides that."  
  
"I was going to ask you the same thing, but unlike some people, I happen to have manners."  
  
Ron immediately put his hands up to his face.   
  
"Is something wrong with me?"  
  
Hermione tried hard not to giggle. Ron looked as offended as she had been when he said something was wrong with her face.   
  
"Ron..just do me a favor and look in a mirror."  
  
She decided it was best to inform him since she strongly suspected Ron(like most guys) didn't spend his mornings staring at his reflection in the mirror like half the girls in Gryffindor did.  
  
  
Ron was puzzled. "Oookay."  
  
Hermione walked out of the room, then remembering what Ron had said about her face, she turned back around and stuck her head through the door frame.  
  
"By the way, what was wrong with my face?"  
  
Ron grinned and mimicked what Hermione had said earlier. "Do me a favor and go look in a mirror."  
  
"Thanks alot."  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes at him and left for the Gryffindor girl's dormitory. Stumbling her way there, she stroked the imposing double doors and whispered "abdicus". The creak of the opening doors woke Parvarti and Lavender and they both screamed at the top of their lungs.   
  
Parvarti had her bedsheets pulled up to her nose and Lavendar muttered something about the "bloody baron". Hermione was starting to get a bit worried about her appearance now. Images of huge boiling vats of blubberpus and an overly cheerful Madam Pomfrey danced through her head.  
  
"I seem to be getting that reaction alot lately." Hermione wrinkled her nose. "Think I had better take a look in the mirror.."  
  
Parvarti and Lavender, once they figured out that the supposed intruder was just Hermione, calmed down considerably. Hermione walked over to the mirror and peered at it.   
  
Parvarti began changing into her daily attire and Lavender came over to join Hermione.   
Hermione looked at her reflection quizically.   
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Here, let me see". Lavender studied Hermione's face. "I think it's..red ink?"  
  
Hermione slapped her forehead, causing a large spot of ink to appear on both hands.  
  
"Of course!When I was taking notes-I just grabbed a pen I saw lying on the table...one of Fred and George's trick ones, I bet. Ooh, I'm going to get them good for this one!"  
  
Lavender grinned misheviously. "Oh, come on!I'm sure they didn't plant the pen there on purpose just for you!"  
  
Hermione snickered. "Oh no, of course not. Being the angels they are, I'm sure they planted it for Ron instead."  
  
Lavender took a detour in the conversation. Determined to get to the subject she wanted to discuss with Hermione, she took the risk of sounding stupid. Hey, anything to help along a little matchmaking...  
  
"You do have to admit, they look like angels. Though, in my opinion George is cuter. What do you think, Parvarti?"  
  
Being that it was early in the morning, Parvarti didn't catch on right away.  
  
"Nah. Ron's cuter than both Fred and George."  
  
Lavender glared at her pointedly and coughed.  
  
A grin very similiar to Lavender's popped up on Parvarti's face.   
  
"Umm..I mean..yeah...George is much cuter. Sure". She finished getting dressed and turned to Hermione. "What about you, Hermione?Which one do you think is cuter?"  
  
Hermione hated it when she got asked these kind of questions. Anwsers to questions like these almost always found a way of getting passed around to the subject of them.  
  
"Oh, come on..we won't tell!" wheedled Lavendar.   
  
"Promise," added Parvarti.  
  
Hermione felt sarcasm was the best way to go. "Well, if you must know,it's..George!Those wonderful freckles of his and those laughing eyes. Oh, he's so handsome he makes me want to swoon..."  
  
Hermione pretended to faint back into Lavender's bed amid laughs from both girls.  
  
"Oh, be serious!"  
  
Hermione shook her head and grinned as if she had secret information she wasn't going to share with them.  
  
"My lips are sealed. I'm not saying any more."  
  
Parvarti sighed. Lavender's matchmaking schemes always failed. Lavender however, was still upbeat. So what if she hadn't gotten Hermione to confess her undying love for George?She would just have to work on it a bit.  
  
Hermione stood up from Lavender's bed, noticing she had been sitting on something. Curious, she picked it up to see what it was. It was adressed to "Hermione."  
  
Lavender and Parvarti, seeing she had some package or something that neither of them had noticed, came to stand over her shoulders so they could find out what it said.  
  
Trying to hide it with one hand from Parvarti and Lavender, Hermione started to read..  
  
"Your hair is as wavy as the ocean,  
your eyes are like two big pools of emotion  
entrancing me forever..."  
  
The letter went on and on, about her ears, her mouth(like a soft rose petal), her nose..until Hermione put it down, feeling a quite amused.  
  
Lavender and Parvarti were beyond amused. They obviously thought it was horribly romantic.  
  
"Awww, how sweet!"  
  
"I can't believe you got love letter!"  
  
Both started hounding her.  
  
"Oh, quick!Tell us who it's signed by!"  
  
"Harry?Ron?Fred?"  
  
"or George?" added Lavender with a smile.  
  
Hermione folded the letter and put it neatly back in the envelope.   
  
"It's not signed."  
  
Parvarti's eyes got a sort of starry look to them.   
  
"Wow..a mystery admirer.."  
  
Lavender, who was sort of pissed it wasn't from George, just hmpphed.  
  
Hermione stuck the letter in her dresser door and calmly began changing out of her crumpled and wrinkled clothing into a different black robe.  
  
Lavender, heartened by a sudden new plan of hers, spoke up.  
  
"Hermione, you act like you get a love letter every day."  
  
Parvarti nodded. "Where's the emotion?You're supposed to be jumping up and down and twirling in circles right now.."  
  
Hermione gave a sly smile. "Well, I would be a lot more excited if the guy who wrote the letter could actually spell and rythm.."  
  
"You are waay to picky," Parvarti said dissaprovingly.  
  
"You know what I say?We should find out who this "mystery admirer" of yours is!" Lavender snatched the letter from out of Hermione's dresser and starting looking it over for clues. If she couldn't get Hermione and George together..well, this was the next best thing.  
  
"I leave it in your talented clutches.."  
  
Admitting defeat, Hermione threw her hands up in the air. Even if the guy was obviously not the best scholar around, it was still pretty exciting to get a love letter.  
And who knows?She reasoned with herself, maybe the guy is really nice. You can't tell everything about somebody just from a letter.  
  
Hermione didn't have to say another word. Lavender took off for breakfast with the letter in one of her robe's pockets. Parvarti, saying something about "tracking the guy down" left a few seconds later, leaving Hermione alone to try and scrub vainly at her face in hopes of getting the red ink off.  
  
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George woke up to Neville's daily wake up call of "Anyone seen my toad?"  
  
"Try looking in your stack of dirty underwear!" someone(most likely Fred) shouted and several snickers followed.  
  
George sat up, drew back the drapes to his bed, and stepped into his slippers. The strange noise of crackling paper greeted his efforts. George grabbed the slipper the noise had come from and shook it heartily. A small, snow white letter drifted through the air and George grabbed at it before any of the other boys could take notice and try to snatch it.  
  
  
"Your hair is as wavy as the ocean,  
your eyes are like two big pools of emotion  
entrancing me forever..."  
  
"Hey, Fred. Will you come over here and look at this?"  
  
  
-------end of chapter------- 


	2. Matchmaking and the first letters

@Dungbombs and S-P-E-W@  
(2/7)-Matchmaking and The Letters  
by:GoldenSilence  
email=flipgal14@yahoo.com  
category:romance/humor  
keywords:George, Weasley Twins, Hermione, George/Hermione, Ron/Lavender  
spoilers:PS/SS, CoS  
rating:PG  
summary:Sometimes the most unlikely people are really the most likely to get together. George and Hermione find humor and romance..eventually. First they must deal with the gossips that are Lavender and Parvarti, Jordan Lee being his usual self, strange letters from mystery admirers, and Ron's crush.  
disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
A/N=Thanks to everyone that has reviewed. Yup, that's it. Wins the shortest a/n ever award, don't it? At least it isn't paragraphs long-like the one after I see the Harry Potter movie for the third time probably will be.:)  
  
  
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Harry woke up to the distinct feeling of something squishy and slimy beneath his arm. The squishy and slimy thing in question was protesting his smothering with feeble croaks.  
  
"'Lo, Neville. Did you lose your frog again? "  
  
Neville bounded over to Harry's bed worriedly.  
  
"Did you see him?Is he alright? "  
  
Harry let up his arm to reveal a very angry green frog, who now that he wasn't being smothered was croaking to the fullest of his ability.  
  
"Trevor!"   
  
Neville scooped up the frog and hugged him, placing Trevor in his front pocket while the frog squirmed vehemently against this new arrangement.  
  
"Thanks Harry. "  
  
****************  
  
Against the frog and all the other hubub of the boy's dormitory, Fred shouted at George.  
  
"What is it? "   
  
"Just come over here, okay? "  
  
Fred crossed over the chaos that was the boy's dormitories obligingly.  
  
"Honestly, why can't you just shout whatever it is across the room? It works well enough for everyone else."  
  
George was starting to have second thoughts about the whole thing. Maybe he should just keep this letter to himself.  
  
Too late for that now.. Lee Jordan had happened to be around when Fred was talking, couldn't help overhearing him, and was now looking at both of the twins curiously.  
  
"What kind of top secret plan are you guys up to? Another order form for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? Sending Malfoy a howler? Pulling off Proffesor Mull's wig? Let me in on the fun!"  
  
Fred grinned.   
  
"No clue. I was just going to ask George here what it was he had to tell me."  
  
George doubted his brother or his best friend would keep the letter a secret for two seconds, but still whispered the information to them, none the less.  
  
"Keep it down guys!I got this letter.. and I'm not sure who it's from."  
  
Lee raised his eyebrows.  
  
"No signature? "  
  
"Nope."  
  
Fred, not having read the letter yet, had no idea as to the nature of it, and therefor couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't have signed it.  
  
"Stupid. Why wouldn't anyone put a signature on a letter? "  
  
George jabbed the letter at him. "It's..well..you'll see why."  
  
Fred and Lee read over the letter. By the time they finished, both were gaping at George.  
  
George ran a hand through his hair and adopted his most Lockhart-like expression.  
  
"I know, I know. Who on earth would write to me? It could be any of millions of girls!"  
  
"Ha!" said his twin. "Don't flatter yourself."  
  
George was serious for a moment. "Look, Fred, would you mind not telling everyone about this?"  
  
Lee, still listening in, was no longer looking shocked and now had a sort of malicious twinkle in his eye. The next thing George knew, Lee was bellowing at him as if they were a million miles away from each other instead of a few feet.   
  
"WHAT? YOU GOT A LETTER FROM A GIRL AND DON'T WANT ME TO SAY ANYTHING? "  
  
George winced. Instantly, half of the boy's dorm stopped what they were doing to look over at Lee, Fred, and George. Even Neville was temporarily distracted from trying to keep his frog from jumping out of his shirt pocket.  
  
George felt extremely grateful that the other half of the boy's dorm had already gone   
to breakfast. Lee gave an impish smile.   
  
"SPEAK UP! I CAN'T HEAR YOU, GEORGE!"  
  
George mentally decided the next time he got his hands on Neville's toad, he would make sure and hide it in Lee's bed.  
  
"Of course you can't hear over that deafening din you're making," George muttered, resigned to the fact that as it was, a good twenty boys now knew about his little letter.   
  
Jordan laughed and reverted back to his normal voice.   
  
"Don't be so sore, George. I don't get what the big deal is. You don't even know who it's from!"  
  
Fred added, "I don't think I would want to know if I were him. No offense, George, but the poetry in this letter is pretty awful."  
  
"Yeah. Sounds like something you'd find one of those blasted dwarfs singing," said Jordan, referring back to three years ago when Gilderoy Lockhart had employed dwarfs and dressed them up like cupids. The resulting image looked more like Harry's cousin Dudley then anything else.  
  
"The only person that would send a letter like that would be moaning myrtle, though it would be hard for her to fall in love with you unless...George, you haven't been in the girl's bathroom lately, have you? "  
  
George glared at both of them.   
  
"Oh, hardy har har."  
  
Fred glanced around the room. "Hey, if you guys just want to sit around here playing detective, that's great, but we are already going to be late to breakfast, and I'm starving."  
  
George and Lee glanced around as well. Sure enough, no one was left in the dormitory. The other guys had all already filtered out.  
  
The twins and Lee started making their way down the spiral staircase, talking as they went.  
  
Lee appeared to be contemplating something. "Hmm....George, you think it could be from Hermione?"  
  
George looked skeptical and Fred guffawed. "How can it be? It doesn't mention S-P-E-W once."  
  
George for some reason, found himself defending Hermione.  
  
"Oh, lay off it. Hermione couldn't have written this."  
  
"No, but maybe Fleur could, " said Lee.  
  
"Nah. The only poetry Fleur writes is probably to herself," Fred disagreed, making George chuckle.   
  
Fleur had transferred just that year to Hogwarts, much to her own chagrin. It had been her parent's choice, and Fleur could daily be heard complaining about everything from the banisters ( not polished!) to the content of the classes ( boring!)  
  
By the time the gang reached the Great Hall, they were already quite late. A good number of heads turned to watch as the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan tried to make their way inconspicuously to the Gryffindor table.  
  
Their plan failed miserably. A scraping of chairs was heard as Harry and Ron scooted to one side to make room for them ( Hermione just looked at them dissaprovingly from her spot on Ron's right side and refused to budge an inch. )  
  
McGonagall had seen their entrance too ( along with all the rest of the teachers ) but didn't say anything, though her eyes said volumes; something along the lines of "I'll deal with you later."  
  
Hermione, who wasn't anywhere near as much like McGonagall as to be able to keep silent, hissed at George through her teeth.  
  
"You're late."  
  
George grinned at her.  
  
"Exactly..for us, that's right on time."  
  
Hermione was about to say something else, and from the look on her face, it was probably something not exactly nice, but Dumbledore interrupted.  
  
"Ahem! For our morning announcement, I have something sort of important to discuss. At least, important to you diligent students"- was it George's imagination or did he glance in Hermione's direction?-"The rest of you, I'm sure, will simply forget all about it in the next few minutes. Ahh, the wonders of a rememberball at times like these.."  
  
McGonagall coughed impatiently, giving Dumbledore the signal to hurry on and get to the point.  
  
"Anyway, the heart of the matter is...the day for your O.W.L's exams has been rescheduled, or should I say moved up to, today."  
  
------end of chapter------ 


	3. The O.W.L exams

@Dungbombs and S-P-E-W@  
(3/7)-The O.W.L Exams  
by:GoldenSilence  
email=flipgal14@yahoo.com  
category:romance/humor  
keywords:George, Weasley Twins, Hermione, George/Hermione, Ron/Lavender  
spoilers:PS/SS, CoS  
rating:PG  
summary:Sometimes the most unlikely people are really the most likely to get together. George and Hermione find humor and romance..eventually. First they must deal with the gossips that are Lavender and Parvarti, Jordan Lee being his usual self, strange letters from mystery admirers, and Ron's crush.  
disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
A/N=I just would like to thank everyone that has reviewed or rated this-thanks a bunch!!:D  
  
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Several gasps were heard from the procrastinators who had been planning on using the last day before the O.W.L's to do the majority of their studying.   
  
Though, a couple of the students simply shrugged and didn't look all that worried, either because they had studied to death for them already, or because they simply didn't care about them. The older and younger students who weren't taking them looked immensely relieved this announcement didn't involve them.  
  
Hermione looked as if someone had just told her Crooksghanks had died. George didn't see why..she had probably been studying for months..or years, for that matter.  
  
"What's wrong Hermione?," asked Fred innocently. "You look like you're going to have a heart attack," the ever observant George added.  
  
"Oh, that's really keen of you to notice" Hermione snapped back.  
  
Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued. "The tests were moved up a day at the decision of both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape.."  
  
I knew he would have something to do with it, thought an infuriated Hermione. If her grades hadn't been so important in potions class, she would have tripped him into a cauldron a long time ago. George was thinking much along the same lines, wondering just how come he hadn't thought of tripping Snape into a cauldron years ago.  
  
As Dumbledore finished his speech, Hermione began gulping and stuffing food down at lightning speed, at the same time trying to study her textbooks discreetly under the table while she ate. Her textbooks, which Hermione prided herself on keeping neat and in the best of shape ( extra points for Gryffindor if your stuff is in order ) were no longer that way. They now had splashes of milk on them and the odd bit of oatmeal or two as Hermione was transferring the spoon from the bowl to her mouth at a rapid pace.  
  
She wasn't too happy about it, but weighing the two, studying for the O.W.L's came way ahead of trying to keep her books in good condition.  
  
Once studying, Hermione went into auto pilot, her eyes anxiously scanning the page, muttering the facts over and over in a low monotone. She was so absorbed she completely shut out the conversation Ron, Harry, Fred, and George were having. None of them being overly worried about the tests, they acted as if they weren't only a mere couple of minutes away.   
  
Once they got on the always fascinating topic of Quidditch, there was no stopping them.  
  
"So,I heard they're making a new kind of broom called the StarSpectacular. Twice the acceleration of the Firebolt," Fred said earnestly.  
  
"Yeah!" broke in Ron,"and the coolest thing is, you don't even have to steer it! All you have to do is think were you want to go and it responds to your thoughts!"  
  
"Really? Do you actually have to be on the broom to control it? "   
Harry's interest had been caught. Not that he needed a new broom,but...  
  
"That's the best feature of all! Anyone-even someone not on the broom- can control it!" said Ron, his eyes shining as he really got into the topic.  
  
"-But wouldn't that cause problems?I mean, the broom not knowing which thoughts to pay attention to at a Quidditch match and all?" questioned Harry again.  
  
Lee Jordan decided to share his vast amount of knowledge on all things Quidditch with the group. "Nope. This broom is the best of the best! It's spelled to listen to one person's voice and one person's voice only!"   
  
"Shame. I can only dream of the punishment Malfoy would get if we took his new broom and sent it flying up McGonagall's dress." George gave a wistful smile.   
  
Harry snorted on his milk. "I wish. The little leech deserves it." The time Malfoy had switched Harry's wand for Neville's was still vivid in Harry's mind.  
  
"No kidding..but if anyone should get the honor of busting Malfoy's arse, it's Hermione. He's tortured her more than anyone," Ron said truthfully. "Right Hermione? "  
  
With this, everyone looked at Hermione, but she made no comment, her curtain of brown curls hiding her face. Synchronized eye rolling occured all around. Everyone knew exactly what Hermione was doing. George snapped his fingers in front of her face.  
  
"Hermione? Helloo?"  
  
Hermione looked up from under her hair at George and blinked.  
  
"Yeah, you. Welcome back to earth, did you have a nice vacation?," George said sarcastically.  
  
"I'm busy," Hermione stated simply.  
  
"Herm, we would let you study..but breakfast is about to be over. You don't want to be late to the first exam, do you?," Ron said, correctly assuming just what Hermione had been doing.   
  
Hermione, caught in the act, said a couple of the last dates of famous goblin rebellions under her breath before slamming her book shut under the table. For once she wasn't the only one studying before classes. Several other thick textbooks could be heard being closed shut. Hermione continued to recite dates and potion ingredients out loud as she stood up from the table, piling her textbooks one after another into her arms until they formed a wobbling load.  
  
Fred had heard her mumblings as she tried to memorize the information she needed for the test and commented on it as he too stood up to get ready to go to his first class.   
  
"Good god, Hermione, talking to yourself, are you? I told you all that work with those extra classes was going to take a toll..she's gone absolutely crazy." The last part Fred loudly whispered in a confiding tone to George.   
  
Hermione pretended as if she hadn't heard a word he said and continued talking, this time addressing the group, who were all in various stages of finishing their breakfast and going over their notes for the exams one last time.  
  
"You don't think Proffesor Flitwick really wants us to know the full hearing of the case against the stampeding unicorns of 1870, do you? Because I could only find half of it transcribed in the History of Magical Animals in England Today.." Hermione trailed off worriedly.  
  
Ron stared at her blankly, obviously having no clue of what she was talking about.  
  
"Come again?I don't even remember Proffesor Flitwick talking about the stampeding unicorns of 1870-"  
  
"Neither do I" said Harry. "Don't worry,Hermione. It's probably just a bonus question or something." Hermione wasn't comforted that easily. "Yeah..well.."  
  
In the main hall of Hogwarts, the group parted. Harry and Ron taking a left turn through the carved double doors to get to Proffessor Flitwick's class, Hermione walking straight down the hallway to get to Professor Viktor's class.   
  
George had to go the same direction to get to Professor Minerva's Dragons and Magic class, and was walking a good number of steps behind Hermione chatting with Alicia Spinnet. Still, he could make her out clearly in the crowd, tottering and teetering from side to side as she tried to balance an incredible load of books piled higher than her head. She looked like a drunken sailor.  
  
George wasn't the only one that noticed Hermione's struggle to carry her textbooks. Malfoy with Pansy simpering on his arm and Crabe and Goyle at his side, noticed as well.   
  
Not one to pass up a chance to make someone else miserable ( besides the fact that making Hermione miserable would be the perfect revenge for her actually daring to study when he, Malfoy, hadn't studied at all ), Malfoy whispered something to Pansy and she gave a high pitched giggle, nodding at him as if encouraging him on.  
  
That was all Malfoy needed, sauntering beside Hermione, he neatly put out his one foot and watched with a sense of accomplishment as she tripped and went tumbling down, books and all.  
  
"You should really be more careful and watch where you're going, Granger."  
  
Crabbe and Goyle, never far from Malfoy, stood with Pansy off to one side, snickering and sneering at Hermione's tumble. Hermione, surrounded by what had been the pile of her own books, was sick of Malfoy's pranks. She decided to give him some friendly advice.  
  
"Oh, go jump off a cliff."  
  
George had witnessed the whole thing and was paying no heed whatsoever to Alicia Spinnet as she chattered on.  
  
"....and as I was saying to Katie, we really shouldn't have seperate boy and girl Quidditch teams, because that would just make things worse..we should just try to get more girls on the exsisting teams..."  
  
Realizing George was no longer listening, Alicia Spinnet stopped talking and glanced in the direction George was looking. Hermione was on the floor with her books sprawled around her. "Poor thing..you think she needs some help, George? "  
  
"George? Wait up!" Alicia yelled at George as he squeezed past other Hogwarts students to get to Hermione. George couldn't hear her, his blood was boiling. Hermione may have been a bit of a know it all and she could be annoying, but still that was no reason for Malfoy to always pick on her.  
  
"Hermione? Are you alright?"   
  
Hermione was rather surprised to see George standing over her looking concerned, but she took his offered hand to pull herself back to her feet. At his grip, her feelings seemed to jumble and twist all at once until they were all one big knot of emotions. She dropped his hand instantly. What was with her? Trying to get herself under control, Hermione noticed George was staring at her and for some reason lost the ability to think straight. She stared at her shoes and muttered a curt "peachy."   
  
Hermione leaned over to pick up all her books off the floor, making sure to never glance at George's face and blaming her strange state on not getting enough sleep the night before.  
  
Malfoy leered at both of them, his face in an unpleasant smile.  
  
"Oh, look, the mudblood and Hogwart's own Oliver Twist, what a lovely couple."  
  
If George had been angry before, it was nothing compared to now. He spoke through clenched teeth.  
  
"Hermione? Do you mind if I borrow one of your textbooks?"  
  
Hermione shrugged, trying to think of a good retort to Malfoy's comment and angry she couldn't find one. "Sure."   
  
With her consent, George took the textbook and heaved it with all his might at Malfoy. It hit Malfoy square in the face. Malfoy wonderingly put one hand up to his jaw. No one ever beat up Malfoy..ever. It only took him a few minutes to get over the shock and realize exactly what had happened.  
  
"Why you little..."   
  
Malfoy advanced on George with fist raised, ready to strike. George in return got his own fists up, a bit of a smile on his face. After all, this was something he had had on his "to do" list for a quite some time. It was at that moment he saw Professor McGonagall out of the corner of his eye. She was obliviously walking down the halls right towards the fight ( which now had a bunch of hopeful spectators crowded all around it. )   
  
"Umm..Malfoy..wait."  
  
"What? You chicken? " snickered Malfoy.   
  
He deserves what's coming to him, thought George and didn't say another word or blink, as the next thing that happened was far to good to miss. Malfoy swung a punch a George and missed entirely as George simply stepped off to one side. Instead, McGonagall, who had been about to try and break up the fight, was the one to feel the force of Malfoy's punch..in the stomach.  
  
Malfoy stared at her in pure horror.   
  
" Twenty points from both houses. Malfoy. My office now," McGonagall managed to gasp out, trying to catch her breath and clutching at her stomach. "As for you"- she gave George a steely glare from under her spectacles-"you get another ten points taken away from Gryffindor besides the twenty."  
  
George was about to raise his mouth to protest, then remembered being late to breakfast that morning. Probably what the old bat took points off for. He simply nodded as McGonagall said something or other about "violence in the halls being utterly prohibited."  
  
With a shake of her head, and a "I knew you and Malfoy would get around to breaking this rule eventually", Professor McGonagall walked off, sulky Malfoy in tow. George could have broken out whistling. For once, Malfoy was getting the stricter punishment! George feverently hoped McGonagall was in an even worse mood than usual this morning.  
  
"You know fighting in the halls is the worst rule to break?"  
  
George sighed. He should have expected Hermione's reaction to be similiar to Professor McGonagall's. George was about to say something about how he had already gotten enough of a lecture and really didn't need another one, when Hermione said something else.  
  
"You should have used my Arithmetics book to throw at him. It's much heavier."   
  
George looked at her in disbelief..Hermione was smiling widely from ear to ear. George felt a grin spreading across his own face. "Oh, I wouldn't worry if I were you, he'll still have a lump on his forehead the size of a grapefruit."  
  
"Too bad someone didn't have a camera. I never want to forget that expression on Malfoy's face as long as I live, " said Hermione. George chuckled. "Neither do I."  
  
Not even realizing what he was doing, George fell into step with Hermione, much to the chagrin of Alicia, who had been trying to catch his attention. They walked the couple of steps silently to Hermione's class, causing Lavender and Parvarti, who were also going to the same first class of the day as Hermione, to grin and start whispering to each other.  
  
When they got to outside Proffesor Viktor's door, Hermione had one last question, naturally about schoolwork.  
  
"George? You've taken the O.W.L exams. Just how hard are they?"  
  
George stole a glance at Hermione and felt a strange bit of sympathy for her. What with the tests getting moved up and all, he was surprised she hadn't already had a complete nervous breakdown. As it was, she looked like she was about to go and get several of her teeth pulled.  
  
"Piece of cake," George fibbed slightly. "Besides, come on, Hermione..you've been studying for these forever. You'll do fine."  
  
Hermione cheered up slightly. "Really?"  
  
George was about to reassure her some more when Pansy, who for once wasn't at the side of Draco Malfoy, spoke up from behind them both.  
  
"What did you do, Hermione? Only study for eighteen months instead of nineteen?The horror!"  
  
She smiled, tossed her hair over one of her shoulders, and walked in before either Hermione or George could say anything. George shook his head.  
  
"Don't mind her, Hermione. Good luck!"   
  
Since when was George the ego and morale booster? Hermione wondered, but she blushed slightly at his well wishes anyway.   
  
"Thanks." Hermione gave George a half smile, and then turned around. She went through the door to class with a determined look in her eye and her back ramrod straight as if she was going off to war instead of simply taking an exam.  
  
That was not what George noticed about her though. He was too focused on her curly hair as it swayed side to side gently as she walked. Hmm..kinda pretty, that hair. Wait, what on earth am I thinking?That's Hermione I'm obsessing over..HERMIONE. So what? said a little voice in the back of his head. So..so..  
  
George gave up on trying to keep from thinking about Hermione as his thoughts inexplicably went back to her hair. As long as no one finds out, he tried to reason with himself, it's no big deal.   
  
"Finds out what?" asked Alicia curiously, finally catching up with George. George hadn't known he had spoken out loud. Funny, he was trying to ask himself that same question inside his head.  
  
"Errm..find out I haven't studied for my test" he covered up weakly.   
  
"Oh."   
  
Alica didn't say anything else, but George could tell she hadn't fallen for a word of it.  
  
  
---end of chapter---- 


	4. Hermione+O.W.L

@Dungbombs and S-P-E-W@  
(4/7)-Hermione + O.W.L'S???  
by:GoldenSilence  
http://pub39.ezboard.com/ugoldenquill.showPublicProfile?language=EN  
email:flipgal14@yahoo.com  
category:Romance/Drama  
keywords:Draco, Hermione, Dumbledore, Harry/Hermione, Draco/Hermione  
spoilers:PS/SS,CoS  
rating:PG  
summary: Harry. Hermione. Draco. One thing that happened years ago changed forever the life of one of them-and will change two of their lives all over again.   
disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
--------------  
A/N=When Hermione is in the fifth year, George would be in the seventh..right? I hope so. My brain is sloowly turning to putty right now-only a few hours of sleep. Lucky I've got thanksgiving holiday to be as lazy and sleep in as long as I like.:) Thanks to anyone that has rated or reviewed this! You guys rock!  
  
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It was only eight thirty in the morning, but Peeves had already succeeded in annoying and torturing enough people to give him satisfaction and fond memories for weeks to come. There was only one thing on Peeve's to do list he hadn't gotten around to. Speaking of which..Peeves cackled to himself as he fit himself under the crack between Filch's office door and the floor.   
  
Once inside, Peeves began throwing doors and basically everything that wasn't of use to him on the floor, enjoying himself fully. He had just finished loitering pretty much the whole room when a cross voice outside the door interrupted his little fiasco.   
  
"Peeves, I know you're in there!"  
  
Needed supplies in hand, Peeves floated hastily through the opposite wall of Filch's office, leaving mayhem in his trail as usual, just as Filch opened the door and walked in.  
  
"PEEVVEEES!"  
  
--------------  
  
Five trick doors, two hallways, and four flights of stairs away in Proffessor Viktor's class, Hermione dumped her books onto her desk and sank into her chair, pulling out the arithmancy notes she had failed to finish last night and a fresh quill.  
  
Trying to write as fast as she could to make up for lost time, Hermione was oblivious to Lavendar and Parvarti's attempts to get her attention. Or at least, she was until Lavendar, who was sitting in front of her, flicked her fingers at Hermione's moving quill, knocking it out of Hermione's grip and causing a long trail of ink to dribble across the page.  
  
Hermione came out of her concentration immediately. "Heeyyy!"  
  
Lavender twisted all the way around in her seat and smiled angelically at her. "Well, how else do you expect me to get your attention?I only said your name about twenty times.."  
  
Hermione sighed and privately said goodbye to any premonition of even thinking about the upcoming O.W.L exam. Lavender had obviously done that a long time ago, herself.   
  
"Are you completely daft or did you not realize I was trying to STUDY?"   
  
"You? Study? The day of a test?" Lavender pinched herself. "Hermione cramming? I must be dreaming. "  
  
Hermione drew herself up in her chair with as much dignity as she could muster. "I am not cramming!I'm just looking over what I have written."  
  
Lavender grabbed the peice of paper Hermione was trying to cover with her elbows and waved the half finished page around triumphantly. "Must be in invisible ink then, 'cause it looks to me like you're missing a few notes."  
  
"It is invisible ink-that way people won't copy off me," Hermione said hastily for the benefit of a couple of students nearby who were glancing at her curiously. Lavender wasn't fooled a bit. "Oh, of course. How clever of you." She leaned over and cupped her hands to Hermione's ear. "You can borrow my notes to look at, if you want."  
  
Hermione beamed at Lavender. "Thanks a million!" Lavender had gathered her notes up and was about to pass them back to Hermione when Hermione suddenly changed her mind and bit her lip. "No..on second thought, I had better not. It's just not right." Lavender shrugged. "Alright, have it your way."  
  
Hermione nodded and picked her quill back up, on automatic writing mode again; scribbling without even looking at the page. Lavender, still leaning across the back of her desk and resting her elbows on the edge of Hermione's spiral, got to the question she had been dying to ask Hermione ever since she walked through the door.   
  
"So, what's up with you and George?"  
  
"Nothing!" Hermione whispered irritably. Lavender simply raised an eyebrow in reply. "It's true!" Hermione defended herself, "Goodness, you act like you caught us snogging in the supply closet or something."  
  
Lavender just smiled. "I did just happen to see you guys walk to class together", she pointed out. Hermione snorted. Really, Lavendar was ridiculous. "So? I walk to class with Ron and Harry sometimes. What am I? Dating three guys at once?"  
  
Lavender snickered. "Ron's taking me out for a butterbeer this weekend, so you had better not be."  
  
For someone that usually spilled gossip on other people with the same regularity she found it out, it was rare for Lavender to actually have some on herself for a change. Hermione's jaw practically scraped the floor.  
  
"WHHATTTTT?"   
  
Hermione's voice rose out of its whisper and was followed by several "shhhss!" and students glaring at her for interrupting their concentration. Up to that point,the class had been oddly silent up as almost everyone tried to transfer information from their textbooks into their brains at a rapid pace.  
  
"What is all this commotion?"   
  
Professor Viktor walked through the door, carrying a stack of papers that made pretty much every student grimace. The horror otherwise known as the O.W.L's was now upon them. Neville, prone to nervous habits, started biting his nails as Professor Viktor handed out the papers. She gave a small smile as she surveyed the gloomy faces.  
  
"Now,now..these tests are nothing to worry about. Especially if you have been following Mrs. Granger's excellent example." The Mrs. Granger in question was gripping the edge of her desk tightly with white knuckled and ink splattered hands, having finished her notes just in the knick of time, and was now frantically trying to recall exactly what she had written.  
  
Hermione accepted her test paper from Proffesor Viktor like it was very small bomb about to explode. Gingerly gripping the couple of papers by the very edges, she set them down and looked at everything but them, waiting anxiously for the tests to get done being passed around.  
  
"You may begin." Hermione, who had beads of sweat popping out in several spots on her forehead, took one glance at the first page of questions and gave a sigh of relief so audible, even Lavender heard it and giggled.  
  
When the bell rang half an hour later, signaling the end of the first class, everyone who had gone in carefree and smiling was now filing out, looking traumatized..Neville's knees were shaking and he still kept on biting the odd fingernail every now and then. Hermione, on the other hand, who had gone in looking traumatized, was whistling; a few smiles away from skipping to her next class. Who would have known it was going to be so EASY?  
  
Lavender and Parvarti glanced at her enviously as they walked alongside her.   
Lavender sighed. "Hermione, that's sick, just sick. You're happier over the O.W.l's then over getting a love note? Your priorities are soo twisted."   
  
Parvarti laughed. "Yeah, if it weren't for us, you'd never find out who sent you it!" Hermione stopped in her tracks and looked at both of them. The letter had sort of taken back seat to the O.W.L's, but she was still kind of curious as to who it was from.  
  
"Right, Holmes and Watson. What exactly have you found out so far?"  
  
"Well, according to the tons of people we talked to.." Parvarti gave Lavender a painful elbow in the ribs. "Errrm, I mean according to our resources, we think it may be.."   
  
She trailed off dramatically. Parvarti grabbed the elbow of Hermione, who was still standing like a statue in the middle of the hallway, and started pushing her down the hall forcefully to Proffesor Flitwick's class.   
  
"We had better get moving. Don't want to be late to our second O.W.L exam and get points taken off, do we?" said Parvarti, pretending as if they all hadn't been talking about the "mystery guy" (as she and Lavender had dubbed him) minutes before.   
  
Hermione dug her heels into the stone floor, sending bolts of pain through her toes and causing Parvarti to stop tugging. "Uhuh, no way. I'm not going anywhere until you tell me who wrote the letter.."  
  
Lavender acted surprised. "Oh, we just don't want to break your concentration on the O.W.L's. After all, I thought schoolwork was more important than some sappy letter", she teased.   
  
"It is. You're right Parvarti, we had better get to class." And with that, Hermione allowed Parvarti and Lavender to pull her down the twisting hallway and up a short set of rickety steps, not going to give the two the satisfaction of showing that she was as interested in the letter as they were.  
  
When they got to Professor Flitwick's class, the dwarflike teacher was already handing out the exams. Lavender and Parvarti took seats next to each other as usual, smiling with some secret, probably, thought Hermione suspisiciously, the fact that they knew who had given her the letter and she didn't.  
  
Ron and Harry were also in Proffesor Flitwick's class, situated right next to Neville, and Hermione waved to them from across the room. Ron appeared to be slightly green around the face. Hermione thought it was just nerves, but the matter of that was soon cleared up when Harry mouthed at her, "Tranfigurations class. Seamus accidentally turned him into a toad instead of a mouse."  
  
After that, just like in Proffesor Viktor's class, the room became eerily silent as Professor Flitwick had the tests passed out. Hermione had been hard at work on her test when the door to the classroom banged open, showing a bunch of the sixth years. Professor Flitwick had to steady himself to keep from falling off his usual stack of ten books in pure shock. (He surprised easily. VERY easily. A lot of students were known for purposely dropping pencils off their desks when things got a bit dull just to watch Proffesor Flitwick topple from his stack of books.)  
  
"Oh dear. I'm afraid we have a little mixup of some sort. You don't come in here until after lunch and-" Proffesor Flitwick checked his watch-"it's only ten now." Fred and George were at the front of the gang of seventh years and it was one of them (Hermione had no idea which, she was staring straight ahead at the teacher) that spoke.  
  
"Yeah, but our schedules say ten." Proffesor Flitwick narrowed his eyes at the Weasley twins. "They do, do they? I warn you, this better not be another prank you two are trying to pull off..."  
  
"It's not!" said a female voice that could belong to no one else but Katie Bell. She marched up to the front of the room and handed Proffesor Flitwick her schedule. Looking at it, he frowned. "Hmm..most interesting. Well, I suppose you all might as well sit down. Write five pages on the history of babbages while the fifth years finish up their tests."  
  
The seventh years did, pulling out chairs, talking, and just generally carrying on, much to the disturbance of quite a few of the fifth years, who were at least pretending to work industriously on their O.W.L's.  
  
Hermione tried her hardest to concentrate on the test, but it gradually became more and more impossible. George, sitting diagonally from her a few seats away, kept having his glance wander in her direction and whether he was aware of that or not, Hermione most certainly was..and she wasn't the only one.  
  
Every time George looked her way, Parvarti and Lavendar went into a fresh onslaught of barely stiffled giggles and whispers, much to Hermione's intense annoyance and discomfort.  
  
In spite of all of this, Hermione finished the test first per usual. Putting her quill down, she cracked her aching knuckles and turned sideways in her seat to see what time it was on the clock. Instead of the clock, however, she found herself staring at George, who was blocking it with his head; bent over studying some peice of paper. Probably plans to blow up the school, thought Hermione, and for some reason, the thought brought a touch of a smile to her face instead of a McGonagall-like frown.   
  
George, sensing her gaze, looked up and their eyes, brown and green, locked for just a split second before Hermione's eyes went scurrying back to her own paper.  
  
After class was over, everyone jousled their way out the door. They looked considerably more at ease and relaxed..there was only one exam left for most of them, so the O.W.L's were now at least half way over.  
  
Hermione, instead of catching up right away with Harry and Ron, stayed behind to talk with Lavender and Parvarti, who were still conversing in animated whispers. She tried to approach the subject as nonchalantly as she could.   
  
"Ermm..so guys..would you mind telling me who the letter's from now?"  
  
"Oh that." Parvarti shrugged. "We aren't completely sure yet." "But we'll try and find out some more," Lavender put in helpfully as Hermione stared at both of them murderously.  
  
  
ezboard link: http://pub39.ezboard.com/ffictionalleyfrm425  
  
-------end of chapter------- 


	5. Secrets..and George

@Dungbombs and S-P-E-W@  
(5/7)-Secrets..and George  
by:GoldenSilence  
email=flipgal14@yahoo.com  
category:romance/humor  
keywords:George, Weasley Twins, Hermione, George/Hermione, Ron/Lavender  
spoilers:PS/SS, CoS  
rating:PG  
summary:Sometimes the most unlikely people are really the most likely to get together. George and Hermione find humor and romance..eventually. First they must deal the gossips that are Lavender and Parvarti, Jordan Lee being his usual self, strange letters from mystery admirers, and Ron's crush.  
disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
-------------------  
"You acted like you knew!" Hermione continued to give both Parvarti and Lavender her best icy glare.   
  
"We don't know..but we do have a guess," Parvarti said.   
  
"Well, what's your guess then?"  
  
"Sorry, we can't tell until we have it confirmed."   
  
Hermione gave a groan, sounding very fed up. "Confirmed?How are you going to know it's confirmed?Taking fingerprint samples from every guy you meet?"  
  
Lavender and Parvarti each had the same air Peeves seemed to possess whenever he was planning one of his worst pranks. They spoke as one. "We have our ways."   
  
Hermione gave a sigh of defeat. "You guys are as bad as Fred and George."  
  
Lavender bowed. "Thank you, thank you very much."   
  
Parvarti chuckled. "You think we're bad now? You should count yourself lucky my sister Padma is in Ravenclaw."  
  
"I'm beginning to think I had better." Recalling the contents of the letter left Hermione with a certain sense of forboding . "What if the letter turns out to be from some really addlepated guy?"  
  
Lavender wasn't nearly as worried about it as Hermione was. "Oh, we'll just set you up with someone else."   
  
Hermione , remembering the last time they tried to match her up couldn't help shivering. She had been forced to spend the evening star gazing with a boy who's favorite class was, in his own words..lunch. Probably just like George. But for some reason, the idea of going through those same motions with him didn't sound so bad.  
  
Of course, Hermione reminded herself, not all that keen to find the hidden message behind her thoughts, Ned Bottom's (the boy she had been set up with) entire vocabulary consisted of the words "cool", "man", and "dude". Probably because those were the only words his equally limited brain could store without exploding.   
  
"Next class will start soon," Parvarti murmured,checking her watch. "Harry and Ron are waiting for you at the door." She corrected herself without even looking towards the door. "Or Ron, rather. Harry seems to have gone off with Cho."  
  
"How did you know? You using your physic abilities or something?" asked Hermione as she looked towards the place where Parvarti should have had to; the door. Hermione noted that Ron was indeed standing in the door frame to the hallway, balancing his books with his knee awkwardly.  
  
"Oh no. Just happened to hear something about them taking some time out for some more intresting pursuits, if you catch my drift,hehe." Cho and Harry had finally become a couple in their fifth year..a fact that was becoming increasingly more obvious as they required more and more as Ron called it, "snogging time".  
  
"What you just happen to hear could fill a book" Hermione stated truthfully, picking her textbooks off the hapless student's chair she had dropped them in (the chair, being charmed to adapt to any weight, was now nearly sunk to the floor from the pressure of about fifty pounds of reading material.)  
  
"See you guys at lunch. You sure you don't want to walk with Ron too, Lavender?" added Hermione as she caught Lavender making eyes at Ron, taking full advantage of being in his blind spot. "You and him do have divination together."  
  
"No. I couldn't possibly. I..umm..have to talk to Parvarti about something." Lavender stuttered to the end of her weak excuse, evidently very aware of the fact that Ron might be able to hear them.   
  
"Oh,okay. No problem. But I would REALLY enjoy your company.." Hermione wiggled her eyebrows to the best of her ability.  
  
"What's she getting at?" Parvarti asked as Hermione walked off, obviously having no idea about the whole thing between Ron and Lavender. From the way she always spread gossip, Hermione figured that every last house in Hogwarts would know, right down to Neville Longbottom. She must have been wrong.  
  
"Oh nothing," Lavender fibbed.   
  
When Hermione met up with Ron, she was grinning more than she had after her first O.W.L exam. That would show Lavender and Parvarti she was every bit as sly as they could possibly be!  
  
Ron immediately started walking down the hall with her, but he looked as if he had expected someone else as well. "Where's Lavender? She usually walks to Divination with me and Harry."  
  
Hermione pretended to be offended. "Uh, hello? Whatever happened to enjoying five minutes talking with one of your best friends?"  
  
Ron laughed. Hermione considered it a personal feat that he at least could figure out she was kidding. It had taken a good three years for her to actually convince him that every other word that came out of her mouth wasn't completely serious.   
  
"Well, you are good company most of the time..but you can't exactly be that when we split to go to seperate classes."  
  
"True" Hermione admitted glibly, "but I can be up to the top of the second foyer!"  
  
Ron, happening to get a good look at her face as they began climbing the stairs, snorted. "Hermione, you're positively beaming, which means one of two things. Did you get a score of 100 or 110 on Flitwick's exam?"  
  
In order to leap over one of the invisible trick steps, Hermione handed her books to Ron for a moment; who had to lean against the railing to keep himself from falling over.   
  
"Oh, Ron, don't be silly!I won't know until next week." She grabbed her books back from him.   
  
George and Fred chose this moment to walk up the stairs to the front foyer themselves; both heading for Professor McGongall's tranfigurations. Fred froze about halfway up, pretending to shield the upper half of his face as if expecting some unseen attack on his eyeballs. George, used to his brother's theatrics (hey, they were twins after all) continued walking calmly up past his brother, offhandedly asking over his shoulder what Fred was doing as he went by.  
  
"Just trying not to get fried by the rays coming from Mrs. Sunbeam." Fred managed to take one hand off his eyes (still keeping them tightly screwed shut) and pointed a trembling finger at the sight of Hermione chatting with Ron further on up the stairs, wearing a smile that stretched pretty much across her whole face.  
  
George, looking where Fred was pointing and imagining what it would be like if that smile was turned full force at him, felt his insides turn to putty. Ever since Professor Flitwick's class he had given up trying to reason why he felt that way whenever Hermione was brought into a conversation or anywhere within a three foot radius of him.   
  
He would have to start going crazy today of all days. Why hadn't he noticed her all along? It didn't make any sense. Stupid letter, George thought, quickly finding something to blame other than his own hormones and feelings. It was all that letter's fault. Turning his mind in this direction to begin with so that he couldn't help but notice when a completely gorgeous, smart, stunning...  
  
George could already tell where his dangerous line of thinking was going and stopped before it could go on any further.   
  
Fred, noticing his brother's non-exsistent response to what was supposed to be a witty comment on his part, felt put out. He noticed a little more then George would have cared him to. "Looks to me like you had better take to wearing shades around Hermione before you get melted by her charms completely" Fred said as George extended his leg to take another step and put it through air. They had reached the top of the foyer, but George didn't comprehend walking past halfway up.   
  
The fact that he was only a few feet from Hermione didn't register with his brain either, but did with his brother and Hermione. Fred pinched George to get his attention and when that didn't work, gave him a shove in the opposite direction.  
  
"What are you doing?" protested George.  
  
"Getting you out of here before you emberass yourself" Fred grunted as he tried to get George to move. George was about to ask just how he was managing to emberass himself when he realized he had been (and still was managing to) stare at Hermione blankly. You were so busy thinking about Hermione you spaced out, didn't you? the annoying voice in his head demanded again.   
  
Face flushing, George walked tersly off in the direction Fred had been trying to direct him towards; the spic and span classroom belonging to Professor McGonagall.  
  
******************  
  
The bell chimed again, its' bells clanging throughout all of Hogwarts as a warning that class would start soon. Hermione lingered for little bit longer, talking to Ron. She was about to tell him she had to get going for Potions when she a very unsettling feeling came over her..it seemed that someone's eyes were boring into the back of her head. Spinning around halfway cautiously, she found herself the object of George's gaze once again, his twin right beside him.  
  
Hermione felt disconcerted. Wasn't their next class at the opposite end of the foyer?  
  
She hadn't realized she had spoken out loud. "Yeah..why are they over here?" Ron said, taking a backward glance over one shoulder at George-and at Fred, who was quite pointedly trying to get George to move.  
  
Ron faced Hermione again. "What are they? Stalking you?"  
  
"RON!"  
  
Ron shrugged and turned to focus his eyes back on his brothers one more time. Fred had just finally succeeded in his venture of getting George to move. "Hermione, what's with him?" Ron egged, "do you owe George money or something?"  
  
Hermione picked up the singular tense of the subject Ron was talking about immediately. "Why did you just say George ?Fred was there to..why didn't you just mention his name?"  
  
"Because George was the one standing as still as a statue in the middle of the landing, you dimwit," Ron said, leaving Hermione with that thought as he headed off to the north tower. Hermione stopped before going down another flight of zig zagging stairs leading her the opposite way and yelled at Ron's retreating back; quite a common practice among the Hogwart's students. Wanting to wish him luck on his next O.W.L exam, she said the first thing that came to her mind.  
  
"Ron! You have brains, use them!"  
  
Hermione's statement caused Ron to duck around the sharply turning corner of the third tower so no one could see who her shout had been directed at. Hermione could sound an aweful lot like his mum sometimes...Ron smiled none the less as he passed numerous gilded portraits hanging in the passageway.  
  
When Hermione walked down to the Great Hall for lunch, a frown had taken the place of the smile she had been wearing earlier. Turned out Snape's exams had not been nearly such a cinch as the others. He had handed out the forms for the tests with the air of Santa Claus handing out christmas presents. Hermione had to support Neville who sat next to her to keep him from falling over in shock once he saw the contents of the test. Why, she had almost fallen over herself.   
  
At least his class hadn't been as bad as Professor McGonagall's. Hermione had tried to turn a blue napkin into a dove and had managed to transfigure it..into a BLUE dove. It was better than having one that was pink like Seamus Finnigan's had been, but not by much.  
  
Hermione mentally went over every anwser to each problem from the exams in her head, berrating herself for each one she had gotten wrong as she sat down to the scrumptious feast that was provided. As soon as she took her usual place between Ron and Harry, Hermione was bombarded by questions from Lavender and Parvarti, the main topic of which was always George.  
  
It wasn't just them talking about George, though. Harry was now in on the subject too. "So Hermione, what is this I hear about you and George?" he asked conversationally as he passed her the bowl of mashed potatoes, causing Hermione to accidentally dip one of her robe sleeves into her glass of orange juice.  
  
"The normal stuff," she said, not caring to elaborate and have the whole conversation of lunch switch to George.  
  
"Oh,ok." Harry blinked at her. "Umm. What's the normal stuff, exactly?"  
  
Hermione spread her bread with the jelly savagely. "Oh you should know..declaring our hidden passions, meeting secretly at midnight..."  
  
"Hermione???"  
  
"Oh, for goodness sake's, I'm JOKING!"  
  
Hermione exploded and Harry quailed under the tone of her voice. "Ermm..it's not that..would you mind putting the butter knife back now?"  
  
"Oh yeah." Hermione handed the butter knife, now covered in strawberry jam, sheepishly to Harry. She picked up where she had left off her rant, a little more subdued this time. "I can't believe you all think I'm in love with George! About the only one that doesn't know is him!"  
  
"Aha!So you do like him!" Lavender stated from across the table smugly.  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes.   
  
"For your information, they could get stuck like that," Parvarti warned Hermione. Hermione rolled her eyes again just to prove her wrong.  
  
"Don't be cross. We're only doing this for your own good," Lavender said."Somebody's bound to have some information on whoever wrote the letter."  
  
"Who did you tell?" asked Hermione, half dreading the reply she was going to get.  
  
"Only the boys."  
  
"Oh, that explains Padma knowing." Padma had come up to Hermione after Potions and had pestered her about George all the way to Professor McGongall's class.  
  
"She's my twin!" Parvarti protested.  
  
Hermione had tried her hardest not to get mad at Parvarti or Lavender over this whole thing..they were her friends..but still..telling everyone what was supposed to be a private matter...  
  
"Right. Then I suppose this would be for your own good?" Hermione smiled craftily. She would tell the one person Lavender had a secret from (Hermione was positive she had told everyone else it) her secret. "Parvarti..Ron's dating Lavender."   
  
Her words had several effects Hermione hadn't thought they would.  
  
Harry finished swallowing his chocolate cake. "He is??"  
  
Parvarti dropped the peas off her fork halfway to her mouth and stared at Ron. "You are??"  
  
Ron was utterly poleaxed and stared along with Parvarti at Lavender, unable to get his jaw to hinge shut. "I am??"  
  
----chapter ends here----- 


	6. Accidents Happen

@Dungbombs and S-P-E-W@  
(5/6)-Accidents Happen  
by:GoldenSilence  
e-mail=flipgal14@yahoo.com  
category:romance/humor  
keywords:George, Weasley Twins, Hermione, George/Hermione, Ron/Lavender  
spoilers:PS/SS, CoS  
rating:PG  
summary:Sometimes the most unlikely people are really the most likely to get together. George and Hermione find humor and romance..eventually. First they must deal the gossips that are Lavender and Parvarti, Jordan Lee being his usual self, strange letters from mystery admirers, and Ron's crush.  
disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
  
***********  
  
"Oh," said Hermione, surveying the damage she had caused and realizing she had made a bit of a mistake..to put it lightly. Lavender's "dream date" obviously had a minor problem-mainly the fact he had no idea he was so.   
  
Lavender was starting to turn delusional. She must be really smitten with Ron. One step away from purchasing a blow up doll, coloring dots on it with orange marker and screaming when someone poked it with a pin kind of smitten. Or already there. Having a gigantic stuffed monkey named after him was pretty normal, but in addition to that, Hermione seemed to recall pair of pink fuzzy slippers named Ron..and wasn't Lavender's pet bunny named Ron as well? Disturbing.  
  
  
Hermione tried to whisper "sorry" at Lavender discreetly across the table, but Lavender was too busy frantically hissing in Parvarti's ear to hear her. Hermione caught the words, as did Ron, who was staring at Lavender's mouth with a suspicious amount of intent...and Hermione was pretty sure his eyes weren't focused there just to lip read either.   
  
It didn't take a genius to figure out the subject of Lavender and Parvarti's conversation. Their conversation went something like a round of twenty questions, Parvarti asking the said questions with the air of a cop interrogating a suspected criminal.  
  
"Are you and him?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"You mean you never?Then why did Hermione just say..."  
  
"Because."  
  
"Because why?"  
  
"Shut up! Oh, will you put a lid on it? He's"-Lavender jerked her head in Ron's direction-"looking!"  
  
And that was the end of Parvarti's and Lavender's little chat. (It was also as well, if not the end of Lavender's butting into other people's business, at least the end of her gossiping quite so freely about them.)  
  
The only two people who were always at the center of hubub and confusion showed up as if on cue to make sure they were included on this latest mess. Fred and George came in carrying their lunch trays.  
  
"You know, I think we just almost missed being the center of attention," said Fred to George as they took in the scene calmly, all the way from Hermione's pentulant expression to Ron's red ears.  
  
"A wrong that can always be righted," responded George as he plopped himself down next to Hermione, a clue that Lavender for once did NOT notice (she was obsessed with her own troubles with Ron and trying to decide if it was too risky to attempt to apparate.)  
  
Parvarti noticed though and she grinned to herself. Hah! George is soo going to hook up with Hermione. Looks like Lavender's going to owe me some sickles...  
  
"So what did we miss?" chorused both twins. Hermione, already berating herself for ruining whatever worth all the countless school days Lavender had spent drooling over Ron had, couldn't bring herself to tell Fred and George what had occured at the lunch table so she kept quiet.  
  
Bad enough the whole table already knew. As Hermione had told Lavender and Parvarti, Fred and George really were practically the male version of both of them. Anything that the twins found out spread like wildfire through the halls of Hogwarts (with a few "alterations" curtesy of the duo, of course.)  
  
But Hermione didn't have to tell either Fred or George what was going on. Both had already figured everything out (great minds think alike and all that.)   
  
George in particular had realized the symptoms written on both Lavender's and Ron's faces where all too familiar part of the ailment he was going through, but he would have swallowed a Fillbuster Magical Firecracker whole before admitting as much.  
  
"Is that it? So Ronniekin's finally dating! About time. I was beginning to think he'd be stuck with moaning myrtle."  
  
Lavender was infuriated with George for insulting Ron and Ron was just as infuriated for George emberassing him even further in front of Lavender. Luckily, glares couldn't kill or George would have died two extremely painful and slow deaths by this point as both Ron and Lavender were giving him the most icy expressions they were capable of.  
  
Fred saw the oppurtunity for a good, healthy, all around brother bashing and decided to tease George just as much as George had teased Ron.  
  
"Hah! I used to think the same about you, George. That was until you began mentioning a certain girl who shall remain anonymous."  
  
George, hoping Hermione's mind wasn't as keen as it usually was and that she didn't put two and two together and figure it all out, yet at the same time hoping she did, promptly dissapeared behind an enormous stack of pancakes as soon as Fred had spoken.  
  
Fred's words had gone right over Lavender's head again. However, Parvarti once again had been alert and caught every one of them, ready to tell her best friend when she was in a more alert mood..most likely after she and Ron had had a good snogging session to work everthing out.  
  
Hermione also took particular note of what Fred said about George and was unable to stop herself from glaring accusingly around Hogwart's Great Hall at all of the females present to determine who Fred could possibly be talking about.  
  
He could have been talking about George's secret obsession with barbie dolls (thankfully nonexsistent) or his mentioning his mum and Hermione still would have been upset...and she WAS jealous.   
  
Angelina Johnson, she thought with a sense of satisfaction, eyes settling on Angelina's sleekly haired head. Hmm. Maybe she could get Lavender to find out everything about the two. Just curious, she told herself. Just curious. Hermione failed to even notice that George was sitting next to her, not Angelina, after all.  
  
Fred was actually feeling a bit sorry for Ron now. His brother and Lavender looked akward and humiliated. Fred ignored the fact that he and George were almost always the reason for both. They tormented Ron and Lavender mercilessly. Almost as much as they tormented each other... Almost.  
  
It was high time Lavender and Ron just went out, yelled their feelings at each other, or had a food fight. And since Fred had a pretty good idea the last one would never happen (especially after he and George's cake flinging in the kitchens last year) he would just have to take the matter of making sure Ron and Lavender permanently stopped acting like deers caught in the headlights every time they saw each other.  
  
He took intiative accordingly.   
  
"Seeing as Ron appears to have temporarily become mute, I'll ask you, Lavender. Were you meaning to ask Ron out?"  
  
When Lavender spoke, her voice was a lot less boisterous than usual. It was almost as if she was still whispering to Parvarti instead of talking.  
  
"Yes. Well, I mean..ermm..kind of."  
  
Hermione caught on to Fred right away and continued before he could speak another word (much to his annoyance). She smiled and turned to Ron.  
  
"And would you go out with her?" Hermione asked. She reminded George of a minister pronouncing a couple bride and groom. She certainly sounded like it, anyway.  
  
"Um. Sort of. I mean..if Lavender really wants to.." stammered Ron, his plate back to being the focus of his attention.  
  
Fred cut in here. "Oh bloody. Look, she's asking. Just accept!"  
  
After ten minutes of avoiding eye contact at all costs as if the other had transformed into a basilisk, Lavender and Ron actually turned and spoke to each other. They had switched from ignoring each other to ignoring everybody else.  
  
"We should go talk about this away from all these busybodys, don't you think?" asked Ron with a contempuous gesture towards the rest of the table.  
  
"Good idea," said Lavender. Scraping back her chair from the table she and Ron left, holding hands together with Parvarti two steps behind them.  
  
"Finally! About time!" thought Fred.  
  
"I wonder if they'll mind if I tag along when they go on their first date?" thought Parvarti.  
  
"Hmpph. They just had better not take over me and Cho's secret closet," thought Harry.   
  
"Aww. How sweet! I didn't ruin everything after all. Good. Maybe she'll forget about my letter," thought Hermione.  
  
"Really must resist putting my arm around Hermione. Must resist.Gah!" thought George.  
  
"Oh honestly, why can't everyone at the Gryffindor table just get a life and leave us alone?" thought Ron and Lavender..and that pretty much summarized everything.  
  
****************  
  
Two hours or so later George and Fred were at quidditch practice with the usual very insignificant crowd gathered below to watch the team. Neville, Ginny, Parvarti, and Ron and Lavender.. both of whom were still holding hands (Neville whispered jokingly to Ginny that one of them must have accidentally touched super glue) and had rapidly descended into the land of smitten coupledom.   
  
There was one person that wasn't part of the usual crowd that always showed up rain or shine to watch the Gryffindor team practice. In fact, in her opinion quidditch was nothing compared to her arithmancy class. Hermione had, in some bizarre change of daily habit, not gone to study in the library as usual but had instead come down to the stands to watch.  
  
He may have been fifty feet or more up in the air swishing around on a broom with a club, but George definitely noticed Hermione. What was she doing here? Since when did Hermione watch quidditch? Wasn't she the one that had once said quidditch was for people who's brains were roughly the size of teacups?  
  
He squinted and tried to make out the details of the blob that was here so far below him. Maybe he was seeing things. No wait. That was her bushy hair alright. Wasn't it? Maybe he should show off. Just a little. A flip or two here, a little beating Fred over the head with his club there...Just maybe....  
  
"Oy, space case! Get your head back to the game!" yelled Lee Jordan across the sky, trying to warn George of a bludger on a direct path towards him.  
  
"Wha-?" George never got to finish his question as the next thing to greet his vision was a huge metal ball hurling with speed right at him. If he hadn't had such quick reflexes the object would have hit him square in the arm, but as it was, George instinctively ducked to one side to avoid it. Unfortunately, he lost his balance as he did. Tumbling off his broom and through the air, he hit the ground with a soft thud.  
  
On seeing George spiral down dizzly from the sky, Hermione dropped her books on Neville's toes (she couldn't completely leave off studying!) and rushed towards his figure lying prone in the grass. Madame Pomfrey and the rest of the Gryffindor team (including Angelina) reached there first.  
  
"Ooh, are you alright?" Madame Pomfrey and Angelina spoke at the same time.   
  
The whole team was leaning over George in concern. Hermione pushed away Fred and Lee Jordan, who seemed to be sniggering for some reason and muttering something about "showing off muscles that were most likely made of balloons", and studied George.   
  
George opened his eyes and blinked at Madame Pomfrey, dazed.   
  
"Great. Other than my body feeling as if it hit a concrete wall at one hundred miles an hour, just absolutely spiffy."  
  
After Angelina helped George to get back up on his feet, Madame Pomfrey looked at him with pursed lips. "Hmmm..you don't seem to have obtained any serious injuries, just a few cuts and bruises. Still, we should take you to the infirmary just in case."  
  
George gave a groan that had nothing to do with his sore black and blue body. Madame Pomfrey's infirmary was not exactly a trip to the local candy shop. Her medicines were rumored to be made with such tasty ingredients as lamb snout powder, horseradish, and dragon scales.  
  
"No really. I'm quite-"  
  
Madame Pomfrey shook her head firmly. "No buts. Now off the the infirmary with you, young man."  
  
George gave one last groan for effect before walking off stiffly in the direction of a side entrance to Hogwarts. For personal reasons of her own, Angelina had taken it to her head to follow him. She appeared beside him and put an arm under his one shoulder to support him.   
  
Geez, you would think I broke both legs from the way Angelina's acting, George thought, wishing Angelina would just disappear and be replaced by Hermione. Not that she wasn't a friend of his..  
  
George tried to listen to Angelina and put his mind off Hermione. Angelina was spitting out ten words a second, one right after another. The effect was making him a bit woozy.  
  
"Umm..Well. I really don't know how to say this. I've been rehearsing it for so long, but...umm..weeell. Ilikeyou," Angelina finished nervously.  
  
George stared at Angelina's features. Was it just him or were there ten of her? Oooh. His head.. Her words were all one big jumble in his brain and he had no idea what she had said, but George pretended to know exactly what she was talking about.  
  
"Yup. Yup. Definitely. I agree."  
  
"Have you heard a word I've been saying?" Angelina's voice bordered somewhere between exsasperation and a temper about to explode.  
  
George strained to catch what she was talking about. Angelina's voice sounded so very loud in his ear. Did she have to yell quite so loud? Hmm. Now what had she said again?Something about his team winning the game? Ugh. He had no idea. Everything was starting to blur up.  
  
"Good luck at the game to you too," George said cordially in reply to Angelina.  
  
Angelina's temper was no longer about to explode. It was exploding . She had worked up her nerve for months to tell him this..AND THIS WAS HIS REPLY?  
  
Forgetting all about George's tumble from his broom a few minutes ago, Angelina pulled back her hand from supporting him and used it to slap George as hard as she could. She walked off in a huff back to join the rest of the Gryffindor team in the practice meadows.  
  
The slap only made George even more dizzy. Walking in an uneven fashion, he managed to reach the door to Hogwarts and felt very thankful when he reached Madame Pomfrey's infirmary a few minutes later and sunk into the very comfortable shag carpet on the floor.  
  
Hermione watched Angelina support George as the two walked off towards Hogwarts. Angelina swung her sleek hair over one shoulder, making Hermione touch her own bushy hair self consciously.  
  
"You know the mousse that makes Angelina's hair like that has pig oil in it?" she remarked to Harry.   
  
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Oh no. Please tell me this isn't the start of a knockoff of S.P.E.W. Let me guess, B-R-F-A-S; Better Rights For Animal Sweat?"  
  
Ron was much more perseptive. "I think someones jeeaalous," he said in a sing song voice with all the confidence of someone who had recently found his match.  
  
Hermione glared at him. "I am not! I just thought you might like to be informed about the horrifying contents of most makeup products is all."  
  
Ron pretended to believe Hermione. " Sure you were. Informing us ignorant males of the contents of mousse to stop us from ever using any in fear that we might end up looking lik your personal hero, Gilderoy Lockhart. Right."  
  
"Better go get my textbooks from the bleachers before Neville steps all over the rest of them," Hermione said and made a hasty escape. Ron and Lavender and Harry all looked after her knowingly. By now, the topic of her and George had been well discussed by all.  
  
She stood up from picking up her books just in time to see Angelina slap George. Didn't know the girl had it in her. Hermione didn't feel angry at Angelia..quite the opposite, she wanted to go over and shake Angelina's hand. If she had slapped George that meant that things weren't as close and cuddly between them as Hermione had jealously imagined.  
  
Fred looked at Hermione, looked at Angelina stomping furiously back across the quidditch field, and muttered the poem from George's love letter cryptically under his breath.  
  
Meanwhile, sheltered underneath the bleachers, Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey were talking about George's accident during quidditch. The students were just a little too free and loud in their rumor swapping. The teachers knew every single detail (including the made up ones involving the two, a spare desk, and a tube of lipstick) about Hermione and George so far.  
  
"Surprised that's all that happened. If he continues to worship her from afar like this, falling off broomsticks will be the least of it. He'll end up swathed in bandages from running into walls and boiling cauldrons, take my word for it," said Professor McGonagall.  
  
"Oh I don't mind. It'll give me a chance to get rid of some of my special tonic," said Madame Pomfrey jovially.  
  
McGonagall winced. She had had the stuff once as a child. It was her second most tramatic experience next to falling into the lake surrounding Hogwarts when she was a first year.  
  
"Speaking of which, I had better go check on the dear boy now."   
  
Madame Pomfrey bustled off towards her infirmary, mentally going over the list of the use of every last tonic and potion she had and all their uses.   
  
You never knew what these children came down with or what bones they had broken..you just never knew. Pepperroot . That should do the trick. Madame Pomfrey thought of the lone bottle she used as a desk weight. Maybe she should give him a bit of that-what was it called?- Ashpirit. 'Course it was thirty fives years old. Oh well. A few cobwebs never hurt anybody..and she was sure boiling it would get rid of most the wierd filmy green stuff on top, anyway.  
  
link:  
--chapter ends here---- 


	7. The end

@Dungbombs and S-P-E-W@  
(7/7)-GEORGE AND HERMIONE FOREVER!  
by:GoldenSilence  
email=flipgal14@yahoo.com  
category:romance/humor  
keywords:George, Weasley Twins, Hermione, George/Hermione, Ron/Lavender  
spoilers:PS/SS, CoS  
rating:PG  
summary:Sometimes the most unlikely people are really the most likely to get together. George and Hermione find humor and romance..eventually. First they must deal the gossips that are Lavender and Parvarti, Jordan Lee being his usual self, strange letters from mystery admirers, and Ron's crush.  
disclaimer:This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
  
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A/N=is that a horrible chapter title or what?   
Wow. I can't believe this is it. I had so much fun writing this!(especially the George and Hermione and the Ron and Lavender parts.:))Thanks to every single last reviewer that has ever reviewed this, especially those that have reviewed more than once- I'd say all your names, but unfortunately I don't have them memorized.^ _ ^Now maybe someone else will write some more George/Hermione fics too!I hope so. Fanfic.net definitely needs more.  
( intresting tidbit that no one wants to know)=The first time I typed this, I accidentally had "Everyone got around to Fred and George's pants" instead of "Everyone got around to Fred and George's pranks"..hehe..good thing I changed that. The first version was ever so slightly perverted..:) Last comment of the story=GEORGE AND HERMIONE FOREVER!..ermm...yeah..  
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George staggered out of the infirmary with one hand over his mouth. If it hadn't been there, he was afraid he would have puked out every last drop of vile medicine Madame Pomfrey had forced down his throat. Oh, his headache was gone, alright-in exchange for an awful stomachache.   
  
He could have sworn Madame Pomfrey had simply chosen the bottle nearest by. Why, she hadn't even so much as glanced at the lable before administering it to him. The stuff tasted like the slime scraped off of Snape's dungeon combined with a side of the burned taste that resulted from George's one attempt at making a pop tart the muggle way.   
  
This must be Madame Pomfrey's revenge for the time he had swiped her supply of swab bandages to deck out the library with (George and Fred had orginally planned on using toilet paper from the boy's bathroom-but they had been out, so that plan was nix.)  
  
"Are you sure you're going to be alright, dear? You still look slightly woozy to me. Maybe you had better spend the night in the infirmary.."  
  
It was Madame Pomfrey, standing outside the door to the infirmary and giving him a concerned glance that in George's mind could only mean one thing..MORE lethal medicine and potions. Not in his lifetime.  
  
"Really, I'm fine," George said hastily, scared Madame Pomfrey was going to simply drag him by one arm and throw him into one of the infirmary's cots if he didn't say something.  
  
Madame Pomfrey wore a skeptical expression on her face. "Well, you certainly don't look it."  
  
George grinned. "Thanks for deflating my ego. It was about to go right through the ceiling from all the talk of my dashing charm and grace.."  
  
"Very evident when you fell off your broom backwards." Madame Pomfrey shook her head. "Though it was an astonishing feat of gymnastics, if I do say so myself. Never seen anyone fly head over feet like that."  
  
"Oh, you should have seen Draco when he turned into a ferret. Trust me, the number of somersaults he did as he bounced down the halls was amazing." That was one image George hoped never to forget. That and Draco slapping McGonagall in the face.   
  
Madame Pomfrey pursed her lips. "Well-you certainly sound back to normal enough..but.." She handed George a small jar containing orange syrup. "Take this just in case. You do still have a sort of pale tinge to you."  
  
"I always have a pale tinge," muttered George, but he took the medicine anyway.   
  
"The medicine should help you get to sleep." Madame Pomfrey glared at him. "Perhaps I shouldn't give it to you. Maybe I should just let you stay up all night, thinking about every last toilet seat you've ever sent one of my patients."  
  
"Don't forget the bag of candy disguised as cough drops," reminded George.  
  
Madame Pomfrey expression mimicked McGonagall's at her sternest, as did her tone.   
  
"Oh you did, did you? Funny-I don't seem to remember that. Thank you for informing me, MR. Weasley. I'll just take the twenty points from Gryffindor now to save Professor McGonagall the trouble of doing so when she finds out."  
  
Ohoh. Everyone got around to George's and Fred's pranks sooner or later-when was the last time George had talked to a teacher without them being mentioned? Not since the first day of school probably.  
  
George gulped weakly. "Errm-gotta go. Thanks for the poiso-"  
  
Madame Pomfrey glowered. "Heheheh, I mean medicine. Slip of the-"  
  
"I'll give you 'till the count of three to get moving or the points from Gryffindor are getting taken. 1..2...."  
  
But by the time Madame Pomfrey got to three, George was already staircases away-or more accurately, for those that knew the marauder's map at the back of their hands, a quick turn down the corridor and a portrait hole away.  
  
George stealthily made his way through the dark of the hallway (it was now quite late at night) back to the boy's dorms. But not before he took the bottle of Madame Pomfrey's tonic and mixed it with Norris's bowl of milk, which was lying adjacent to the door.  
  
When George entered the boy's dormitories, his entrance was greeted by the eyes of all the boys who hadn't yet gone to bed.  
  
"Geez, nice to see the concern. Before any of you ask, don't worry-I'm feeling fine. Be able to make faces at Snape behind his back again in no time. No permanent brain damage."  
  
Fred shook his head. "That's because there isn't any brain to damage to begin with."  
  
Before George could comment and the twins could get into another one of their infamous joking insult matches, Jordan spoke.  
  
"Hate to dissapoint you, but we're not all boring holes into the back of your head just to see if you're feeling okay-"  
  
-"Because from the way you were looking in Hermione's direction during quidditch, you obviously aren't," added Seamus.  
  
"Right. Then the reason you're all staring at me like my mum when she spots a tongue-ton toffee is because..?"  
  
"Because you got another letter," said Neville.  
  
"Which means you had better go put on some cologne, brush your teeth, and just generally get prepared for a major mooch fest 'cause the letter said something about meeting by the...," Jordan trailed off.  
  
George covered his face with his hands and sank down into the quilted comforter on his bed. "Jordan, don't tell me you of all people read the letter."  
  
Jordan looked askance. "Of course not! I merely glanced at it while Seamus read."  
  
"..As did I.."  
  
"..and me.."  
  
"me too!"  
  
George picked up the letter and brandished it like a sword.   
"Did anyone NOT read this?"  
  
"Yeah. The ones currently off snoring in dreamland," said Fred.  
  
Neville spoke impatiently. "So are you just going to sit there all night or are you going to open it?"  
  
"You guys already opened it," George pointed out.  
  
"Ahh..true. So are you going to read it?"  
  
George sighed. "You know, some sappy love letter isn't what we should be talking about late at night. Why not talk about the quidditch world cup?Or scheme ways to make Pansy's false eyelashes fall off? Now that's manly stuff."  
  
"We're not men. We're boys!" squeaked Colin.  
  
"Speak for yourself," grumbled Seamus, Jordan, and Fred.  
  
"More like annoying little sisters, if you ask me," George said. "Don't see why I should bother to read the letter. Why don't I just get one of you guys to recite it? I bet you all have it memorized."  
  
"Oh sure, no problem. Would you like it recited in iamic pentameter or free verse?," Seamus quipped.  
  
"Just kidding! Just kidding!" he added quickly as the other four gave him raised eyebrows. "We aren't that obsessed in your affairs."  
  
"Yeah right!" George snorted.  
  
"I just want my twin to have someone who compliments his good looks."  
  
"Nice to know you're so concerned," George said to Fred. He opened the letter and a small sheet of thin paper slid out over his lap. He gave it a cursory glance.   
  
Strange. It bore the Hogwart's school heading at the top-and it appeared to have been ripped off a notepad or something. As if the author were desperate for paper and had filched some from one of the teacher's offices.   
  
The letter in itself was short. Very short. Even shorter than the last letter, which hadn't been exactly what you would call long. Its contents ran thus..  
  
I have watched you all day and know you are anxious to unveil my identity. Come meet me at midnight by the set of armor missing a sword and all shall be revealed.  
  
  
The boys all cracked identical grins. "What are you waiting for?"  
  
George rolled his eyes and pointed at the letter for emphasize. "Try midnight. And no, you guys can NOT keep me company while I wait."  
  
"Damn," said Fred. "And I was going to go over my list of Hogwarts girls who write poetry."  
  
"All two of them?"  
  
******************  
  
Hermione was tired. No, scratch that. She was positively exhausted. Staying up half the night to study for the OWLS had not been one of her brightest ideas.   
  
Even though it was only nine at night, she hit the bed without a second thought. Luckily Lavender and Parvarti weren't present (Lavender's plans with Ron going, well, according to plan) or they would have no doubt roused Hermione instantly to tell her off the small white letter that she was using as a pillow.  
  
However, Lavender and Parvart were present and still awake three hours later. And as soon as they spotted the letter Hermione's head was resting on, they made sure she was awake as well.  
  
Hermione awoke groggily and irritably. "Did you have to get back so soon?"  
  
"We didn't. Hermione, you've been asleep for three hours!"  
  
Hermione yawned and got out of bed. "And I was planning on sleeping for at least ten more. Any reason why you felt you had to wake me up?"  
  
She glanced from Lavender to Parvarti, who both were wearing grins. It wasn't that hard to guess why.  
  
"Oh no. Not another letter!"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"And you've been sleeping on top of it."  
  
Lavender and Parvarti were right. Where her pillow should have been, sure enough, a white, square object-considerably crumpled-lay there.  
  
Hermione held it and stared at the plain white envelope. It didn't even so much as have her name written on it.  
  
She carefully opened it and scanned the writing..which looked, she privately thought, as if the writer had been trying to write in a very small closet. Or in a hurry.  
  
I have watched you all day and know you are anxious to unveil my identity. Come meet me at midnight by the set of arm-  
  
Hermione stopped reading and wheeled around to glance at Lavender and Parvarti. "WILL BOTH OF YOU PLEASE STOP READING OVER MY SHOULDER?"  
  
Lavender and Parvarti both tapped their feet and simply stood their ground.  
  
Hermione sighed. "You aren't going to so much as budge until I finish reading the letter, are you?"  
  
"Nope, " said Lavender.  
  
"Consider our feet glued to the floor," said Parvarti.  
  
In spite of all their goofing off during classes, apparently Parvarti and Lavender could read at the same pace as Hermione (no way they would give up reading over her shoulder) because as soon as she had finished, both of the them gave a short squeal.  
  
Hermione raised an eyebrow at the two girls. After years of rooming with both of them, she deciphered all of their squeals. All ten of them. And the one they had just made was the "OOh this is soo exciting, we have got to come with you!" squeal.  
  
"Okay, let me say this right off. You guys are not coming with me to meet him."  
  
"Oh, no need to be so cryptic, it can only be one person. I mean, Geor-"  
  
"Whoever he is," said Hermione before Lavender could finish off the name of George.   
  
Parvarti, more quick witted than people gave her credit for, saw her chance and pounced on it.  
  
"Exactly. You don't know who he is. What if it's a pervert or something? Or someone dangerous-"   
  
Lavender snorted. "Yeah..about as dangerous as Neville with a plastic knife."  
  
Parvarti gave Lavender a warning look to shut up before she continued. "As I WAS saying, you'll need bodyguards-just in case. We can come along and protect you!"  
  
Hermione and Lavender both cracked up.   
  
"Hahahahaa."  
  
"Hehehehe."  
  
"Sorry, Parvarti. But do you have any idea how stupid you just sounded?"  
  
Hermione made an effort to stop laughing. "Over my dead body. Look, I'll tell you all about how it went when I get back, okay?"  
  
Parvarti and Lavender both gave determined grins. "Over our dead bodies."  
  
And so that was how Lavender and Parvarti came to be sneaking behind Hermione as she herself sneaked down the halls of Hogwarts-which were tricky enough to find a way around in the broad daylight, but absolutely maddening to try and cross when you hadn't studied the marauders' map since year one.  
  
Huh, protection? These two offer about as much protection from scary would-be physcopaths as a teddy bear, thought Hermione. Even though both girls thought Hermione wasn't aware they were following her, Hermione most certainly was.  
  
***************  
  
George and Hermione had one common goal-but both were coming from different directions, so they didn't see each other at all.   
  
"Please don't let Parvarti and Lavender ruin the whole thing. Please don't let Parvarti and Lavender ruin the whole thing!" was all Hermione could think. Neither of them had much of a chance to. Because someone else did first.  
  
The moment Hermione stood by the suit of armor, she spotted a very unwelcome presense grinning at her from the opposite wall. Even more unwelcome that her two tagalongs.   
  
"Peeves, get out of here!" she hissed.   
  
Peeved just grinned even wider. "Oooh, perfect little prefect to be is breaking the rules, is she? Hehehe, both of you'll get what's coming to you." He cackled.  
  
"Bot-?" Hermione noticed a pair of decidedly human legs standing on the other side of the suit of armor. Could it be?  
  
Hermione never got to finish her question out loud because Peeves chose that moment to flick his wrist. It may have looked like the most harmless of actions-though, nothing Peeves did could be described as harmless-but instead with that mere twitch, Peeves had summoned a gust of wind. A mischevious gust of wind that strangely didn't rattle the set of armor in the slightest but instead settled for blowing both Hermione and whoever the other person was backwards against their will into none other than...  
  
Filch's office. The door clicked shut behind both of them. It was only after a quick survey of her surroundings-and shouting five charm spells at the door to try and get it to unlock-that Hermione noticed who else was present.  
  
Apparently he noticed her as well. He spoke quite rationally and calmly considering the situation. Both attributes Hermione was not feeling at the moment.   
  
"Oh hey, Hermione. On a mission for Filch or something?"  
  
It hadn't hit George just what Hermione was doing there locked in Filch's office with him. Or that she had been standing by the suit of armour same as he had. His head, which had been cured by Madame Pomfrey only earlier that night, now hurt as bad as ever from colliding headlong into Filch's desk.  
  
It took a few seconds of Hermione staring at him with her jaw dropped for George to realize just exactly why she was there.  
  
"Oh. Ohhh. Oh no."  
  
Hermione frowned. "My thoughts exactly."  
  
"You set this whole thing up," George said accusingly.   
  
Hermione's frown deepened. "Me, why would I do that? No way!I'm not that desperate!"  
  
Fine. If she's not going to admit she sent the letters,I'm not going to admit I like her, thought George. And how could I have set this whole thing up? She obviously sent the letters.  
  
"Hah! You call disobeying rules on purpose to come up here at midnight not desperate?" said George.  
  
Had she broken rules just for him? Hmm. Maybe she was just too shy to tell him she wrote the letter. Not that that was exactly what he thought of Hermione as. Bossy, loud, funny, and extremely pretty was more like it.  
  
"Same could be said for you, you know," Hermione said curtly, wishing that the door would just magically open so she could escape-either that or she could die of emberassment then and there.  
  
"'Mione, I always disobey the rules," pointed out George.  
  
"Oh," Hermione said, feeling incredibly sleepy and very stupid. It then dawned on her just what George had called her.  
  
"George! You just used my nickname. Only close friends use my nickname."  
  
Whoops. Bad slip. Probably best not to let her know he always called her "Mione" when she wasn't around to hear.  
  
George tried to cover up. "See? Prooves this letter's not from me."  
  
Hermione gave him a skeptical sort of once-over. "Don't be silly! It has to be from you. Why else would you be here? The letter specifically said midnight by the suit of armor."  
  
George's eyebrows went up. "Waiit a minute-you got a letter too?"  
  
Hermione was exasperated. "Do I have to mime? Yes, I got a bloody letter. The one you wrote."  
  
"I didn't write it!" Realizing yelling his head off probably wasn't the best way to go around getting back on Hermione's good side, George lowered his voice. "I got a letter too and it said the same thing. Coincidence, huh?"  
  
"Yeah-but who would?"  
  
"Peeves," both stated simply.  
  
It was a highly uncomfortable moment for both. Hermione stared at George. George stared at Hermione. George moved a step closer. Even though he had only been stepping closer so he could pick up his wand from where it had fallen on the ground, Hermione was thinking along quite a different line, influenced by Lavender and Parvarti's lovely little chat as they had pulled her along to meet her "mystery admirer." She backed up from him, her eyes widening.   
  
Her one foot stepped back across the well polished floor-her other foot, however, jerked down into thin air, causing Hermione to fall flat on her face. Hermione wasn't exactly a common visitor to Filch's office and had no clue of the trick cracks in the floor throughout his room to discourage visitors such as George, Fred, and Peeves- all of whom came through regularly to cause havoc.  
  
What did Filch polish his floors with? Grease?   
  
It took a few painful tries for Hermione to unstick her foot from the pesky hole in the floor boards. She accepted George's hand to pick herself all the way back up, dusting off her robes once she was uprighted.  
  
Hermione narrowly missed her falling on the floor on her rump yet again. But when she saw what exactly had kept her from a tumble, she almost wished she had fallen. Hermione Granger had fallen completely into George Weasley's arms.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Hermione's senses were very acutely aware that George's face was only a matter of inches from hers-and his arms were holding her tightly. Much tightly than a friendly sort of hug warranted. And much longer than him saving her from falling on the floor warranted.  
  
Was her face covered in floor wax? Because George was staring at her as if it was.  
  
"I mean no. No I'm not," Hermione barely managed to mumble. She shivered and moved quickly away from his encircled arms, regretting she had done so almost immediately.   
  
"Make up your mind," said George with a bit of a grin.  
  
Hermione began back up again slowly, this time making sure she went to the right of the crack in the floor. She had almost made it to the door when she felt a hand on her shoulder. A gauntleted hand. It was just a suit of armor-evidently Filch liked to keep a set in his office as well-but Hermione didn't turn around to find out. She gave a scream of surprise.  
  
George ran over and put his hand over her mouth. "Hermione, shhh! Are you daft? This is Filch's office. He'll come running if he hears you screaming! I happen to know from experience he has excellent hearing-either that or wears his hearing aid turned up on high at night."  
  
George didn't remove his hand. Hermione, who had run out of his arms earlier, had no wish for him to. And neither did George. Her lips underneath his touch. Something about the setting felt so perfect-even though they were locked in Filch's office in the middle of the night-and he had to get it out. Out it came, all in a rush.  
  
George told Hermione he liked her in a manner much similiar to Angelina Johnson's conveying of the same message to him.   
  
Face flushed, he waited for Hermione's reply, not sure what to expect.   
  
"Mmmm" was all she said. She's not saying anything, George thought panicking. She doesn't like me!I'm doomed..emberassed for eternity...  
  
That was when he realized he still had his hand over her mouth. He promptly took it off. Hermione acted as if he had never said a word.  
  
Focusing on the rusty coat of arms on the wall, she began talking hurriedly of a way to get out of Filch's office, her words running into one another. If she was trying to pretend she hadn't heard a word he said, she was doing a horrible job of it.  
  
"-or maybe I should try another one of my spells. Though, I don't remember-was it abdicus or adbicus?On the other hand, maybe....-"  
  
"Hermione, that's not important right now," George said gently.  
  
"it's..it's..not?" stammered Hermione.  
  
"Nope," said George, fairly sure of what he was going to do now.  
  
He roughly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him. Then, he lowered his face to her own wide-eyed one and kissed her. Hard.  
  
She responded with just as much vigor, shocking George..and herself. When the kiss ended, alot of explaining was done by both, but Lavender and Parvarti didn't stick around to hear as much.  
  
Lavender, looking at George's and Hermione's entwined figures through the door knob, turned around and nodded to Parvarti, who had been listening against the wall. They both jumped up and down and gave each other high fives. Being woman of..ermm..gossip, they hurried off towards the boy's dormitories, but not before Lavender went up and made the door was still locked. They could unlock it when they got back.  
  
Once in the boy's dormitories, both Lavender and Parvarti went straight for Ron's bed. The first words that woke him from his dream were Parvarti's to Lavender. "Pay up."  
  
Ron sat bolt upright in bed, fully awake now. Of course. The bet on George and Hermione, how could he forget? So he had been correct. He knew it, he just knew it!  
It made it ten times better that he hadn't just asked for some measly old galleons in return if he won...  
  
"Ooh, pay me as well!"  
  
Lavender glared. "No."  
  
"Aww.. Saving for the end of our second date, eh?" he gave her a devilish grin.  
  
"It's most definitely not that!"  
  
"Then come on. Just one." Ron pouted.  
  
"NO, I tell you! I'd like to kiss you,but I can't Ron. I just brushed my teeth!"  
  
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Ron said, forgetting he had eaten eight garlic Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans in a row followed by three onion ones earlier that night when he had been on a date with Lavender.  
  
Parvarti and Lavender hadn't, that was for sure. "See you toomorrow, Ronniepoo! I'll pay up then!" shouted Lavender, laughing loud enough to wake the whole dormitory.  
  
***********  
  
Meanwhile, Hermione and George had just stepped outside of Filch's office-the door had mysteriously unlocked when George had kicked it, and though Hermione was a bit miffed her ten spells hadn't had any effect when his foot had done the trick, she didn't say anything. Romantic moments weren't to be ruined, right? Right.  
  
  
George was smiling widely at her. Not that he had stopped ever since they had kissed.  
"So, you want to go stick some dungbombs in the faculty toilets?"   
  
Hermione grinned right back. "Love to." George didn't so much as raise an eyebrow-he was rapidly discovering Hermione had alot more personality to her than just the scholary, play by the rules side.  
  
"On one condition.. you join S-P-E-W," Hermione added slyly.  
  
"I may be in love with you, but I'm not that far gone."  
  
George relented when he saw the adorable begging expression on her face. "Oh alright, alright. I'll bloody join. Just don't tell anyone."  
  
"If you don't tell anyone about the dungbombs."  
  
"You mean, if anyone finds out more like," George said.  
  
Hermioned pulled him off down the hall. "Oh, they won't. I haven't been studying in the library for nothing. I just happen to remember a spell that makes everyone within a twenty mile radius go deaf for a limited time. Just long enough for a little mischief."  
  
George looked at her in awe before placing a small kiss on the tip of her nose. "Alright, it's now official. You're my dream girl."  
  
Entranced with each other, Hermione and George were oblivious to two scampering pairs of feet as they rushed away back to the girl's dormitories, giggling like crazy. So many people to tell, so little time....  
  
THE END(expect a sequel very soon.:)) 


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